Ukraine is too optimistic about the introduction of F-16s into service, believing that it will receive the fighter jets in as little as six months, CNN writes. According to the channel, when exactly the F-16s will be able to begin combat sorties depends on a variety of factors, including Ukrainian pilots learning English, training pilots to fly the aircraft and providing the necessary maintenance.
After months of requests for F-16s, Kiev was enthusiastic about the impending transfer of Dutch, Norwegian and Danish fighter jets to the Ukrainian Air Force. However, as CNN notes, Ukraine is too optimistic about the introduction of the F-16s into service, believing that it will receive them in as little as six months.
According to the channel’s website, the F-16s could be useful for Ukraine in many ways. These aircraft are multifunctional: they can cover troops from the air, attack ground targets, destroy enemy aircraft and intercept missiles. Moreover, they are now quite affordable: European air forces have a large number of F-16s and are gradually phasing them out of service. At the same time, CNN also points out that the need for them is extremely great – the superiority of Russian aviation, especially on the southern front, is holding back the Ukrainian offensive.
However, exactly when the F-16s will be able to begin combat sorties depends on a variety of factors. There is a delicate balance between the urgency of getting F-16s into service and the careful training required for Ukrainian pilots to make the most of them.
There is also the question of how many F-16s Ukraine needs to take the initiative on the battlefield. Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have pledged to provide Ukraine with more than 60 aircraft, but some of them will have to be used for training as well as maintenance.
While Ukraine ponders how many planes it will need, given that in practice the F-16s have never stood up to Russian air defences, Denmark, Romania and the US are starting training programmes for the first Ukrainian pilots. The Ukrainian military has been very optimistic, believing that it will only take about three to four months to learn to fly the F-16s.
However, CNN notes that there is a big difference between basic training (takeoff, flight, landing) and operating in combat mode as part of a group of aircraft, especially when it comes to operating in a Russian air defence zone. Yuriy Ignat, the speaker of the Ukrainian Air Force, said that it would take Ukrainian pilots about six months to learn to fight on F-16s.
The TV channel calls this timeframe too ambitious. Western pilots who transfer from other aircraft take about nine months, and this is without taking into account training for specific combat scenarios. That said, the F-16’s cockpit is significantly different from that of the MiG-29, the Soviet fighter that Ukrainian pilots typically fly.
“The problem is that they have to transition to an aircraft equipped with a number of systems they haven’t encountered before, and that the US and NATO are taking an approach to air warfare that the Soviet Union didn’t have,” said Mark Kansian, senior adviser at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
Added to that is English language training. According to Ignat, about 30 pilots in the Ukrainian Air Force now have an adequate command of English, which is the minimum to create two squadrons that Kiev estimates could allow the AFU to begin to seize the initiative on the battlefield.
Moreover, for all its effectiveness, the F-16 requires far more maintenance than a typical Soviet fighter, and it will be as much of a challenge for the Ukrainians as flying it. Kansian told CNN that the F-16 requires 16 hours of maintenance per flight hour. And the cost of one flight hour is almost $27 thousand.
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