Home reports politics Great Britain and Netherlands support Ukrainian F-16s

Great Britain and Netherlands support Ukrainian F-16s

Gerd Portugall

May 19, 2023

Britain and the Netherlands are working on an "international coalition" to help Ukraine procure US-made F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jets, a spokesman for British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said marginally on May 16 the meeting of the heads of state and government of the 46 member states of the Council of Europe in the Icelandic capital Reykjavik. There, Sunak and his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte had agreed on the bilateral initiative for pilot training and the delivery of "Fighting Falcons".

"We need the F-16," said Ukrainian Presidential spokesman Andriy Yermak, according to US news channel CNN, "and I thank our allies for their decision to go in this direction - including the training of our pilots." Belgium too, Yermak continued , have “confirmed his willingness” to train Ukrainian pilots.

Although the Royal Air Force does not have any "Fighting Falcons" in its roster, the British side has offered to train Ukrainian pilots at a dedicated flight school. In addition to the Netherlands and Belgium, the Scandinavian countries Denmark and Norway, as well as Italy and the Aegean countries Greece and Turkey have F-16s within NATO - although Ukraine does not have the support of the latter two because of their religious or political proximity to Russia can count. Of the Eastern European NATO members, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania own Fighting Falcons; Slovakia has ordered machines from the manufacturer Lockheed Martin.

During visits to Italy, Germany, France and Great Britain, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy had solicited support for the establishment of a "fighter jet coalition" in the past few days. However, Giorgia Meloni in Rome, Olaf Scholz in Berlin and Emmanuel Macron in Paris ruled out deliveries of their own fighters to Kiev in the foreseeable future.

The F-16 "Fighting Falcon" was developed and built in the 1970s by the then US defense company General Dynamics. It made its first flight in 1974. For comparison: the MiG-29, which has already been handed over to Ukraine by Poland and Slovakia, took to the skies for the first time in 1977. The current version C/D (one-seater/two-seater) was delivered from 1984 onwards. The US Air Force and Air National Guard (ANG) have around 900 of these in their inventories. So far, however, the Biden administration has declined to hand over its own Fighting Falcons to Ukraine. But there are indications that the Washington administration may be willing to authorize the delivery of European F-16s to Ukraine.

Gerd Portugall

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