The pilots, who were the first to go to learn how to fly American fighters, passed a difficult choice, there were certain requirements for them.
In the first wave, Ukraine will send its best pilots, who have passed a rigorous selection process, to learn how to fly F-16 fighters. Yuriy Ignat, spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, spoke about this in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.
He said the list of the first wave has already been drawn.
“The pilots are, as they say, at a low start, the first wave is selected – the best pilots with combat experience, with hundreds of hours of flight time, who speak English, who are more younger or younger, because we need promising pilots so that in the future they can be mentors and instructors to students later. The list is updated, because sometimes pilots die, but you need to understand that the best of the best will go first,” Ignat said.
He also expressed confidence that Ukrainian pilots will pleasantly surprise the Western military and will be able to quickly master the F-16.
“It’s an optimistic scenario that they can do it in four months. Some pilots say: “I’ll fly in two months, in three.” Well, they really want to. And our partners, who taught our specialists on other systems, on the Patriot, IRIS-T, NASAMS, were not too optimistic about their studies. Well, those Ukrainians will come, well, what are they there, they don’t know much about language, they work on those old S -300 systems, and we have such systems. The Ukrainians came and, As always happens in Europe, they were surprised, they did everything to do it as quickly as possible could and ahead of schedule, returned to Ukraine and managed to shoot the Kinzhals,” he said.
The spokesman of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said that the advantage of the F-16 is the automation of many processes, which allows the pilot to concentrate on carrying out combat missions.
“The pilot’s control stick is in the middle of us, and there is already a joystick on the right. In many ways, the control system in the F-16 is automatic, the pilot does not need to be distracted by some processes that are needed. which will be done in the MiG- 29, where there are 300 toggle switches that need to be controlled all the time. You just have to get used to it, learn it again,” he said.
Ignat noted that the main thing is to know how to use the full range of weapons that the F-16 has.
Remember, on June 5, Prime Minister Denys Shmihal said that Ukraine had already sent its first groups of pilots to Britain to learn how to fly Western fighters. However, Ignat refuted this, saying that the first groups of aviation specialists have been set and are studying the possibility of further deployment of training for Ukrainian pilots.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.