WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) – The US military wants to train Ukrainian pilots in the US on F-16 fighter jets. This was announced by US Department of Defense spokesman Pat Ryder on Thursday. English training is to begin in September, followed by flight training in October.
The US government had previously not ruled out training Ukrainian soldiers in the US on F-16 fighter jets if there were not enough capacities in Europe. Ryder has now said that at some point in the future, capacity in Europe will be reached. Therefore, this step is now being taken preventively.
The Pentagon did not name a number of pilots. Ukraine will determine how many pilots should be trained in total, Ryder said. The training in the USA is intended to expand the training capacities of the fighter jet coalition with another location.
For months, Ukraine had been intensively asking its international partners for Western fighter jets in order to be able to effectively ward off the Russian war of aggression. For a long time, however, the delivery of F-16 jets to the USA failed, where the aircraft were developed. At the G7 summit in Japan in May, the USA finally paved the way for third countries to be allowed to deliver F-16s to Ukraine and also to train pilots. After that, a coalition led by Denmark and the Netherlands formed among the NATO countries to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.
Ryder did not comment on a timetable for the actual delivery of F-16 jets to Kiev. This question only arises when pilot training has been completed. This is about months, not weeks. Training on the jets is complex and cannot be rushed. Ryder stressed that the US had made it clear from the start that the fighter jets were about long-term support for Ukraine, not support in the current Ukrainian counter-offensive./jac/DP/he