The Netherlands will train Ukrainian F-16 pilots and the delivery of Dutch aircraft to Ukraine is one step closer. But are our ‘cast-offs’ still good enough?
The F-16 was called the ‘electric jet’ and ‘the fighter of the future’ when the Netherlands opted in 1979 to purchase F-16s. They were already on their way to the exit, but now they may be given the mission of their lives at the last minute: defending Ukraine against the Russian invasion. A condition of the West for any deliveries of fighter jets is that they are only used over Ukrainian territory and not for attacking targets in Russia.
This weekend finally came the promise from the United States that F-16s are allowed to go to Ukraine. European countries may want anything, but the Americans have the last word. First, the training of Ukrainian pilots will begin. A crash course for experienced MiG pilots is estimated to take at least another six months. Then decisions are made about who will deliver the devices and when. Ukraine is aiming for about fifty F-16s in addition to its own MiG-29s. For Russia, the announcement is cause for ominous words. The Kremlin threatens with “resources” in response.
Cruise missiles
F-16s are useful to Ukraine for a number of reasons. They can ensure that fewer cruise missiles get through the air defenses. And the fighter aircraft are suitable for supporting and protecting ground troops, for example if Russian MiGs go on the offensive.
Trench warfare is already being waged in the air, says Professor of Military Operational Sciences Frans Osinga. “If Ukraine is able to achieve air superiority over part of and behind the Russian front, then it becomes extremely risky for Russia to muster artillery, tanks and armored vehicles for an offensive, and to keep fuel and ammunition supplies close to the front. to take.”
IS caliphate
The Netherlands also used the F-16 for similar missions over the former Yugoslavia in the 1990s, in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2010 and after 2015 in Iraq during the war against the IS caliphate. The aircraft are now no longer sufficient for the Netherlands, which has almost completely switched to the much more modern F-35.
When the Netherlands opted for the American F-16 in 1979, that aircraft was still considered hypermodern. ‘He went to cruising altitude in 53 seconds,’ says Hans ‘Dutch’ Dekkers in the book Mission F-16 . “You’re faster with an F-16 than a Saturn 5 rocket.” Until then, Dutch pilots had to make do with the dangerous Starfighter and the cumbersome Northrop NF-5, nicknamed ‘the moped’.
The Netherlands bought no less than 213 copies of the F-16, also known as the Viper named. Actually, the lifespan was only about twenty years, but thanks to a major update they could last more than double the number of years. Nearly 45 years later, the aircraft are ready for retirement or for sale to countries with less stringent requirements. Parts are becoming too expensive and the aircraft is ‘less able to withstand new circumstances and threats’, as the Air Force itself describes it. For example, the F-16 is no match for Russian air defense.
Deadly tag
In the 1990s, Dutch pilots already had problems with the smaller SA-6 mobile surface-to-air missiles or the shoulder-fired SA-7. They had to deal with this during the Kosovo war. When the Serbs fired such a missile, Dutch pilots had to play a bizarre game of deadly tag. “That thing is dead, but seems alive because it follows you around all the time. It moves with you as it gets closer and closer,’ says veteran F-16 pilot Joost ‘Niki’ Luijsterburg in the book Mission F-16 .
That was nothing compared to the S-400. A contemporary F-16 pilot fears those Russian anti-aircraft missiles. “The number of fighters lost to the S-400s would be unacceptable,” said US aviator John Venable. The F-35 is a match for Russian defense missiles.
Practice enemy
Despite the vulnerability, the Royal Netherlands Air Force still has 24 F-16s in use. No longer for the real work along the eastern flank of the NATO area, but for protecting Dutch airspace. Another part is now unused in the hangars. Twelve of these are intended as training enemies over the American desert, but delivery to the Draken company was delayed. That was food for speculation. Wasn’t it strange that the twelve aircraft were transferred to Belgium for maintenance when they would only serve as a training enemy? Or was it a harbinger of a trade that would allow them to be transferred to Ukraine?
Zelensky has been asking for F-16s since the beginning of the war. Yet they are not an ideal aircraft for Ukraine in every respect. As far as runways are concerned, the aircraft is a princess in the pea. The characteristic large air intake of the aircraft hangs just above the asphalt. A single splashing stone is sucked up by the turbine engine with fatal consequences.
When Dutch F-16s had to come into action over civil war-torn Yugoslavia in the 1990s, this turned out to be a major problem at the Italian Villafranca base where the Dutch were stationed. Special track sweepers had to be flown in to clear the track full of crumbling concrete and gravel. Ukrainian jobs – especially after air raids – are certainly not squeaky clean. Other devices are better suited on courts that are not there as a billiard cloth.