Poland kicks off F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots. And the fighters?
Training of Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 jets has begun in Poland, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Tuesday, following the green light from the United States.
“ I am happy that finally pilot training for the F-16 has started in several countries. It will take time, but the sooner the better ,” Borrell said during a meeting of EU defense ministers in Brussels.
“ For example in Poland ,” Borrell said when asked to specify where it started.
A European diplomat, speaking on condition of anonymity, confirmed to AFP that the training had started in Poland. Warsaw's defense ministry declined to comment.
The move comes after US President Joe Biden last week gave the green light to train pilots in Kiev on the American-made jets Ukraine says it needs to counter Russia's invasion.
Poland, a neighbor of Ukraine and one of its staunchest supporters, has been saying for months that it is ready to train Ukrainian pilots on jets. The country has been a key hub for training Ukrainian soldiers and supplying arms to Kiev.
Poland operates 48 F 16s, of which 12 are used for training, so they have the capacity to train pilots, but still, we are talking about months of training, at best. Unless the training was already underway.
But who will supply the fighters once the pilots are trained? Poland does not have enough, at least until the new Korean FA-50 Golden Eagle fighters arrive. But there are Nordic countries ready to intervene. Denmark has already stepped forward and the Netherlands have a significant number of these fighters already in reserve. Belgium also has these fighters.
However, it will take months, at best, before they are operational. An internal US aviation document, on the basis of US simulator tests, speaks of four months, judging the result of the Ukrainian pilots to be above average.
Unless the Ukrainian pilots are already in training…
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The article Poland kicks off F-16 training for Ukrainian pilots. And the fighters? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/la-polonia-fa-partire-laddestramento-sugli-f-16-per-i-piloti-ucraini-e-i-caccia/ on Thu, 25 May 2023 15:00:16 +0000.