Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans in Wednesday comments said F-16 fighter aircraft Kyiv has waited for more than a year to beef up national air defenses will arrive in skies over Ukraine “in the near future.”
Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans told the Ukraine state-financed Ukrinform news wire service that Ukraine’s allies are “working diligently” to deliver the aircraft to Kyiv. Final training and practice for Ukrainian pilots and ground crews was continuing, and “a smooth and reliable” engagement in air combat operations was a priority, he said.
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The Ukrainian pilots participating in F-16 transition training have succeeded in learning the aircraft in an impressively short time, but their transition to wartime operations still needs to be deliberate, he said.
“I have to say that what the Ukrainian pilots have achieved, is simply amazing. For Dutch pilots it takes many years, sometimes five, to learn to operate the F-16, to learn the system, which is quite complex. Ukrainian pilots are doing this in a year and half. So, this is really something significant (to learn).”
Brekelmans predicted that once fielded Ukraine’s F-16 fighters and crew will focus initially on “air defense operations” against Russian Air Force aircraft, drones, and missiles.
A multi-role, fourth-generation aircraft purpose-designed both for air battle and ground strikes, the F-16 potentially could be used by Ukrainian air war commanders for attacks against Russian bases, troops, and even warships.
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Confirmed information on how Ukraine’s Air Force plans to operate its F-16s has been thin, and closely watched by Ukrainian and, of course, Russian state media.
“I think, that in the initial phase, air defense will be the most important operational use of the F-16. And, possibly, they will be used for other operations. But the priority will be air defense,” Brekelmans told Ukrinform.
On Tuesday, according to the official Russian news agency TASS, a Urals-based energy equipment company called FORES promised 15 million rubles ($171,000) to the first Russian soldier or pilot to destroy a Ukrainian F-16. The actual base and missions of Ukraine’s first F-16 squadron, and its personnel, are tightly held Ukrainian operational security classified items.
According to a Wednesday report by the Doha-based major television agency Al Jazeera, Ukraine’s Air Force may be beefed up with 32 F-16s slotted for decommissioning by the Greek Air Force.
Athens would only part with the aircraft if it had replacements on hand, likely cutting-edge F-35 Lightning II aircraft or at least the very latest Block 70 F-16V model, the report said. A US Congressional Committee recently approved the sale of 40 F-35s to Greece, but Washington and Athens have not yet agreed on price, crew training, and transfer timelines.
The Greek Block 50 and 52 F-16CJs were they to be handed over to Ukraine, though already quite advanced, would likely be upgraded with avionics and other configuration options to current USAF capabilities and overhauled for extended service in the US. This work would push the transfer – were it to take place – even further into the future, Al Jazeera wrote.
The Hellenic Air Force has 40 Block 50s (GE engine) and 90 Block 52s (Pratt & Whitney engine), which could be outfitted with the USAF CCIP (Common Configuration Implementation Program) at Hill AFB, Utah, where the mod was completed for USAF aircraft.
The F-16AM MLU (mid-life upgrade) aircraft Kyiv is slated to get from Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway has already essentially received many of these modifications which, depending on options selected by these air forces, would include many, if not all, of the following upgrades:
- new advanced core and fire control computers (FCC)
- advanced aircraft interrogators (used to identify aircraft)
- JHMCS (Joint Helmet-mounted cueing system), giving the airplane the ability to fire on any target the pilot can see, no matter how far it is from the jet’s nose, when combined with the AIM 120 AMRAAM and/or the AIM-9X high off-boresight advanced infrared missiles
- Sniper XR advanced FLIR (forward-looking infrared) targeting pods
- NATO Link-16 data link, giving shared battlespace situational awareness to the pilot
- glass cockpits with three large multi-function color displays
- in some cases. the Block 70 F-16V APG-83 Advanced Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) fire control radar with integrated threat warning and the ability to search, track, engage, and target airborne vehicles at very long range against multiple radar returns, even for low-observable, reduce radar cross-section aircraft
If all these modifications are added the F-16 is a fourth-generation plus combat warplane, with avionics comparable to fifth-generation aircraft such as the F-35, unfortunately without 21st-century super-computer stealth in the design and integrated sensors and drone-control of “wingmen” UAVs.
When detractors point out the year the aircraft was first designed and flown as a handicap for the F-16 they are not considering these features available in this warplane that outclass anything Russia has.
Though Al Jazeera has pointed out a time delay in receiving possible Greek F-16s, these were not in the original calculus and should be welcomed by Kyiv.
Of course, within weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Ukrainian officials led by President Volodymyr Zelensky launched increasingly urgent requests to Washington to allow the transfer of F-16s to Ukraine to fight Russia’s more powerful air force with a much larger fleet of combat aircraft in its stable.
The US dragged its feet on allowing NATO allies operating F-16s like the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway to donate their aircraft to Ukraine. Washington officials often cited concerns the transfer might “make Russia aggressive.”
The White House reversed its ban on allowing some European F-16 customers to send their aircraft to Ukraine in April 2023. Training of pilots and aircrew has been slowed because of some Ukrainians’ weak knowledge of English, and because of extremely limited pilot and ground crew slots in training programs run primarily by the US.
Zelensky in June comments said Ukraine has 30 pilots ready and available for F-16 transition training, but the US and its allies are struggling to train more than two or three at a time.
According to most open-source reports, between six and twelve Dutch F-16s possibly twice that many trained Ukrainian pilots, and around 150 ground crew, are on track to begin air operations in Ukraine in the coming weeks.
Counts of aircraft promised by Ukraine’s allies for expansion of Ukraine’s F-16 fleet now number around 60 planes set to be decommissioned in Denmark, Norway, and the Netherlands. However, some planes might not be delivered by 2026-28, assuming sufficient pilots could be trained to fly them.
Ukrainian Air Force officials have said that Ukraine needs between 120-150 F-16s to realistically challenge elements of the Russian Air Force deployed to Ukraine.
Kyiv has complained a current US ban on deep strikes with F-16s into Russia will prevent Ukraine from hitting Russian air bases housing bombers that have launched thousands of bombs and missiles at Ukrainian homes and businesses. Washington officials have said the ban is necessary to prevent a widening of the Russo-Ukraine war.
US National Security Communications Advisor John Kirby in June 7 comments to the White House press corps said the DC policy of keeping American weapons in Ukrainian hands on a very short leash, isn’t going to change.
“President [Joe Biden] has from the beginning made it clear that we aren’t looking for World War III here, and we’re not looking for a war with Russia. And he knows and he has said, time and time again, that an escalation of this conflict to that degree is not only going to be horrible for the Ukrainian people; it’s going to have disastrous consequences, potentially, across the European continent,” Kirby said.
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