Belgium is sending two fighter jets and dozens of training personnel to support Ukraine's F-16 pilot training program as Western countries rally to enhance Kyiv's air defense capabilities.
According to a Thursday report from the Belgian broadcaster RTBF, which cited conversations with Brussels' Ministry of Defense, two F-16B jets—a two-seat trainer version of the F-16A—are being sent to Denmark. The aircraft is intended to bolster joint efforts between several NATO allies who are working to train Ukrainian pilots in Denmark on how to operate F-16s to be used in Ukraine's war against invading Russian forces.
Belgium's F-16s will be stationed in Denmark for two eight-week periods between March and September, alongside nearly 50 instructors intended to help train Kyiv's pilots, technicians and mission planners.
Newsweek reached out to Ukraine's Ministry of Foreign Affairs via email for more information.
The news comes a day after Norwegian Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram announced that his country was sending two of their U.S.-made jets to help with the F-16 program in Denmark as well. Kyiv is expected to receive dozens of F-16s over the next year or so from Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky asked for F-16s for months before his Western allies reached an agreement to donate the aircraft. Experts have told Newsweek that the jets will create new opportunities for Kyiv's forces to threaten Russia's air superiority.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry announced last month that the first cohort of Kyiv's pilots had completed a basic training program in the United Kingdom and was moving on to training with the fighter jets in Denmark. At the time, the British Defense Ministry wrote in a post to X, formerly Twitter, that the "F-16 will be the core of Ukraine's future air force."
Training for the F-16s is also taking place in Romania and the United States. Officials close to the matter previously told The Washington Post that Ukraine's pilots training in Arizona are not expected to be combat-ready until this coming summer. Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandra Ustinova said in November 2023 that Kyiv could field the F-16s by the end of the spring in the "best-case scenario."
However, a U.S. source told Newsweek in late December that Ukraine might have already received its first batch of the promised fighter jets, although Kyiv and its allies would likely hope to keep the delivery under wraps in an effort to surprise Moscow's military.
"I hope the West has learned NOT to announce new weapons systems, as was done for the most part for the first 20 months of the war," Daniel Rice, a former special adviser to Ukraine's lead commander General Valery Zaluzhny, previously told Newsweek.
"Russian forces should learn 'the hard way' when Ukraine fields a new weapon," added Rice, who is now the president of American University Kyiv.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has dismissed assertions that the F-16 will change the course of the conflict, saying last fall that the aircraft is only doomed to "prolong" the war.
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Kaitlin Lewis is a Newsweek reporter on the Night Team based in Boston, Massachusetts. Her focus is reporting on national ... Read more
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