Ukraine’s F-16 Program Receives New Boost

Ukraine’s fledgling F-16 fighter jet program has inched one step closer to taking flight.

Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram announced on Wednesday that Norway is sending two of the U.S.-made jets to help train Ukrainian pilots in Denmark, according to Reuters. Norway and its European NATO allies Belgium, the Netherlands and Denmark have all agreed to collectively provide Ukraine with dozens of F-16s.

Alongside Major General Rolf Folland, chief of the Royal Norwegian Air Force, Gram flew in a final test flight before the aircraft are sent to Denmark’s Skrydstrup Air Base, according to Norwegian state media outlet NRK. Norway also reportedly sent 10 flight instructors to the base to assist in training the Ukrainian pilots.

Gram told NRK that the effort to help Ukraine “establish a modern combat air force” would be “large and long-term” but “important for stability and security throughout Europe.”

Newsweek reached out for comment to the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email on Wednesday.

Although the F-16s are no longer cutting-edge technology, they represent a significant upgrade for Ukraine, which has relied on a fleet largely consisting of Soviet-era MiG and Sukhoi jets since Russia invaded nearly two years ago.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has insisted that the upgrade will not improve Ukraine’s footing in the war, saying at the Eastern Economic Forum in September that procurement of the jets “simply prolongs the conflict.”

Norway is reportedly planning to donate between five and 10 of its F-16s to Ukraine. Last month, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that a shipment of 18 jets from the Netherlands would be sent soon.

It was also announced last month that the first cohort of Ukrainian F-16 pilots had completed a basic training program in the United Kingdom and moved on to training with the jets in Denmark.

Five Ukraine-bound jets from the Netherlands previously arrived at a Romanian flight training center in early November. A small number of Ukrainian pilots received training in Arizona earlier last year.

It is unclear when the jets will be ready to enter combat. Most estimates have suggested a timeline of no earlier than spring, due in part to the ongoing training of pilots and support staff.

Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuriy Ignat said during a Ukrainian media interview last week that bringing the aircraft into the “crosshairs of the enemy” while still “waiting for everything to be 100 percent ready” would be pointless.

“The infrastructure, the pilots who are now in training with the instructors, also the aviation engineering staff [are] the basics that we need,” said Ignat. “We’re taking planes to fight on them, not to keep them standing.”

Norwegian Air Force Academy professor Lars Peder Haga told NRK that Russia would likely attempt to learn where the jets are being kept once they arrive in Ukraine and “attack them where they stand,” pointing out that Moscow could achieve “a great prestige victory” by destroying the jets “on the ground.”