A coalition that plans to train Ukrainians to use F-16 fighter aircraft took shape on Tuesday, with the signing of a declaration of intent by 11 countries – including Belgium – to equip Ukraine’s air force with aircraft capable of fighting the Russian invasion.
The document setting up the ‘F-16 Coalition’ was signed by the defence ministers of the 11 countries – not all of which have F-16s – and their Ukrainian counterpart, Oleksiy Reznikov, on the sidelines of the Nato summit being held in Vilnius.
The Netherlands will provide aircraft that will be dispatched to Romania, according to the outgoing Dutch Defence Minister, Kajsa Ollongren. Belgium, for its part, will make instructors available to the coalition and will also offer its industrial expertise in F-16 maintenance, Defence Minister Ludivine Dedonder said in a statement.
The countries involved are Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, the UK and Sweden, which is waiting to join Nato following the lifting of a Turkish blockade.
The future Ukrainian pilots will first have to take English courses – which explains the presence of the UK and Canada in this group. “The manuals are in English,” Dedonder stressed to the press.
According to Ollongren, preparatory training will take place from next month in Denmark, which has already announced that it will make its Skrydstrup air base in the south of the country available.
“We (the Netherlands) will help set up the training centre” that is being created in Romania, Ollongren said, referring to an effort that will cover “the next few years.”
The Dutch minister estimates that it will take at least six to eight months before the Ukrainians are in a position to fly and maintain such aircraft. After that, logically, she believes, the question will arise of the delivery of F-16s to Ukraine, for which the United States has yet to give its authorisation.
The F-16s will protect Ukrainian airspace and NATO’s eastern flank, the Ukrainian Defence Minister said on Twitter, adding that other types of fighter aircraft could be involved.
The Ukrainian air force is ready to control them as soon as possible,” Reznikov added. “Ukraine will win this war.”
