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Countries pledged to acquire fighter jets last year, but their delivery and pilot training have proved complex. Ukraine could only start with six commitments, out of the forty-five promised.
By Lara Jakes
Report from Fetesti Air Base in Romania
The planes are ready and flight instructors are waiting at a new educational center in Romania, set up to teach Ukrainian pilots how to fly the F-16 fighter jet. But there’s a problem: the Ukrainian pilots haven’t arrived yet, despite the latest claims. That the center would play a role in getting them off the court and protecting their country from increasingly deadly Russian attacks.
It is not yet clear when the Ukrainian pilots will begin operations at the center, at the Fetesti air base in southeastern Romania, which NATO allies also use for exercises to fly fighter jets. But the delay is a window into the turmoil and chaos that the military alliance has experienced. he scrambled to get the F-16s.
This is not to say that Ukrainian pilots are unprepared. So far, 12 pilots (less than a full squadron) are expected to be fit to fly F-16s in combat this summer, after 10 months of education in Denmark and Britain. and the United States.
But by the time the pilots return to Ukraine, six F-16s will have been delivered out of the forty-five fighter jets promised through European allies.
However, its long-awaited arrival on the battlefield may not happen anytime soon. Russia has used a more competitive air to gain ground in eastern Ukraine in recent weeks, employing its fighter jets to send long-range guided glide bombs to Ukrainian front lines.
And Ukraine desperately wants more weapons, of all kinds, as it runs out of artillery ammunition and other ammunition as congressional Republicans block more aid from the U. S. military. The F-16s will most likely receive short- and medium-range missiles and bombs. partly compensating for the lack of land-based ammunition.
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