“It is necessary to “disperse treason”. Why Britain could not train 200 Ukrainian pilots for the F-16 — Romanenko October 23, 14:57 Share: Ukrainian pilots on graduation in Britain (Photo: Royal Air Force / X (Twitter)) Great Britain trained 200 Ukrainian pilots who will soon be to fly on Western F-16 fighter jets, said Deputy Defense Minister of the United Kingdom Luke Pollard on his page on the X social network (Twitter). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXrnEIOuhro Why this one”, — write on: ua.news
Ukrainian pilots at graduation in Britain (Photo: Royal Air Force / X (Twitter))
Great Britain has trained 200 Ukrainian pilots who will soon fly on Western F-16 fighter jets, the Deputy Minister of Defense of the United Kingdom, Luke Pollard, said on his page on the X social network (Twitter).
Valery Romanenko, aviation expert, leading researcher of the State Aviation Museum, explained why this information is dubious on the air of Radio NV:
“There is nothing to think about here, you and I will have to disperse the “treason”. Only eight pilots were present at the graduation procedure. And that’s all. This is the second batch of eight pilots to be trained in Great Britain. Moreover, they are not trained for F-16 flights, but trained on primary flight training aircraft.”
An aviation expert explains that Britain has a two-seater plane with a maximum speed of 340 kilometers per hour. And these pilots were trained specifically for them:
“Britain has no F-16s. In Britain, language and flight training is conducted on airplanes that are simply taught to fly. And they teach, say, terminology, they teach procedures. In fact, these are cadets.”
Then they have to go through several more stages of training, Romanenko is convinced. Therefore, he assumes, we are not talking about two hundred Ukrainian pilots who are fully ready for the F-16.
“Most likely, we are talking about the training program or the training of specialists of all specialties of the air force, i.e. flight personnel, engineering and technical personnel, ground personnel, and combat control officers. Usually, there should be from 10 to 15 ground specialists for one pilot, according to the state it looks like this. Then this number is quite real,” explained Romanenko.
The USA will train young cadets. Ukraine will receive a full F-16 squadron no earlier than the spring of 2025 — WSJ
F-16 in Ukraine is the main thing
On August 4, on the 20th anniversary of the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed the provision of F-16s to Ukraine. Several F-16 fighter jets, along with MiG-29 and Su-27 aircraft, flew over the Ukrainian sky during the ceremony to welcome the soldiers.
According to The Economist, Ukraine received 10 of the promised 79 aircraft, and by the end of 2024, Ukrainian forces should probably be able to use 20 F-16 fighters.
Military expert Frank Ledwidge said the F-16 was a disappointment and explained why
On August 26, the first F-16 crash occurred in Ukraine. As a result of the accident, the lieutenant colonel of the Armed Forces Oleksandr Mes died.
On October 12, the Institute for the Study of War reported that the Ukrainian F-16 was able to shoot down a Russian Su-34 fighter for the first time.