Belgium to deliver 30 F-16 aircraft, but by 2028.
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Unfortunately, in some countries the delivery schedule is quite long, as Deputy Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Ihor Zhovkva said on Svoboda Live about the delivery of aircraft to Ukraine from partner countries.
We really need the number of aircraft that the president spoke about (128 – ed.). We have corresponding declarations from our partners on the number of aircraft. We know these four countries and we know the number that they promise. […] Belgium declared 30 aircraft, and this is in our agreement with Belgium. But it says that these 30 aircraft will be delivered by the end of 2028, which is obviously unacceptable for us, Zhovkva said.
He also noted that an important issue is increasing the number of training centers for pilots: “during a war, we cannot afford to go through this long period of training, as it is written, perhaps, in textbooks. We can optimize this.”
Ukraine expects to receive six F-16 aircraft in the summer and up to 20 by the end of the year, Bloomberg reported earlier.
The decision to send military aircraft to Ukraine is now complicated by questions of spare parts and a language barrier between Ukrainian pilots and their foreign instructors.
In addition, people who are involved in this issue are concerned that there are not enough runways on Ukrainian territory, and those that are are vulnerable to Russian missile attacks.
One of Bloomberg’s sources noted that Ukraine will likely be able to deploy a squadron of F-16s – from 15 to 24 aircraft.
Another source told the agency that Kyiv expects to receive six fighters this summer and up to 20 aircraft in total by the end of 2024.
Source: Racurs
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