Lt. Col. Joost Luijsterburg, Royal Netherlands Air Force detachment commander, Morris Air National Guard Base, Ariz., waits to taxi his aircraft at Naval Air Station Key West, Fla. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Tech. Sgt. George Keck)
The United Kingdom and the Netherlands are working on an “international coalition” to help Ukraine procure American-made F-16 fighter jets, a spokesperson for UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said on May 16.
According to a joint statement released following a meeting between Sunak and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte at the Council of Europe Summit in Iceland, the two NATO allies are trying to procure fighter jets as well as training for Ukrainian pilots to fly them.
Ukraine, who has been demanding Western-made fighter jets for the last few months, welcomed the announcement from the British and Dutch leaders.
“We need F-16s, and I am grateful to our allies for their decision to work in this direction, including training our pilots,” said Andriy Yermak, head of the office of President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Yermak said Belgium, another NATO ally, in particular, had “confirmed its readiness to train” Ukrainian pilots on the fighter jet.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics, and now produced by Lockheed Martin.
Designed as an air superiority day fighter jet, the F-16 evolved into a successful all-weather multiroler with the capability to carry and deploy a wide range of precision-guided air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions.
The Royal Air Force does not operate F-16 fighter jets. However, both the Netherlands and Belgium possess dozens of F-16s.
Belgium was one of the earliest buyers of the F-16. Its aeronautical company, SABCA, was a primary producer of the fighter jet as part of the partnership. The country’s initial order included 116 F-16A/B aircraft in blocks 1, 5, 10, and 15. Delivery began in 1979, and was completed in 1985. A follow-on order for 44 F-16A/B-15OCU aircraft was completed in 1991. Many of the Belgian F-16s received the Mid-Life-Update (MLU) upgrade at SABCA.
The Netherlands, like Belgium, made substantial orders for the F-16, and built aircraft at the Fokker plant. Deliveries started in 1979 and ended in 1992. A total of 102 aircraft were initially ordered, but these were followed by substantial follow-on orders for a total of 111 additional aircraft. Fifty-two of these were F-16A/B-15OCU aircraft. These orders brought the total Dutch F-16A/B deliveries to 213. At least 108 of them received the MLU upgrade.
Today, 44 F-16s are in active service with the Belgian Air Component and at least 24 others are operating in the Royal Netherlands Air Force. Both countries have been looking to sell their older fighter jets.
The supply of F-16 fighter jets would make up for some of the losses the Ukrainian Air Force has sustained since the start of the Russian special military operation in Ukraine last year. However, the supply process could consume so much resources and take a lot of time, as Ukraine lacks the trained personnel and the infrastructure to operate the American fighter jet.
In addition, older versions of the F-16 are inferior to Russia’s most modern fighter jets, like the Su-30, Su-35 and the stealthy Su-57.
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soparlele confirma ca un p at riot a fost afectat…. ar trebui invatat din asta… intens si conduita repetata….
the second ukros will receive f16s, they will ask for the next thing, f35, tomahawk cruise missiles, nuclear submarines and what not … the west will strongly deny their claims at first because they do not want to “escalate” but then slowly will send everything. and russia accepts this bullshit…
ans also slowly russia will destroy them one by one, humiliating the ameriscum military shithole and its collective cocksucker west. it’s a very fair equation…
destroy it they will, but at what cost? a single russian life is worth more than all f-16s in the world.
nope! not in war, you must be a gurl are ya sunny?
one and the same gypsy faggot with multiple personality disease 😆😆😆 here are some more bananas for you to stick in 🍌🍌🍌🍌🍌
so, tell me a few things: who exactly are going to fly the f16’s? you need a lot of training on them. they don’t know how to fly them.
who’s going to maintain them? they need a lot of specialized maintenance. the ukies just don’t know how.
finally: how, exactly, are they going to cost russian lives if they get blown out the sky by russian air defenses?
according to one of the nato officers who provided headquarters support for counterattacks on the flanks of the bakhmut group on may 12, ukraine suffered one of the biggest losses since 2014 – 1,725 people were killed.
the strikes of the 2nd azov brigade on the southern flank and two mechanized brigades and one motorized rifle battalion on the northern flank were stopped, and the losses amounted to one regiment.
thats what the ukronazi and their western backer can expect from counteroffensives. they might gain territory, but the losses are not worth the price. the next “gamechangers” or “wunderwaffen” don’t help. the nato idiots still have not realized that. nato countries are undermining their own security and wasting their equipment. the ignorance of facts has never lead to anything good.
that is why both the uk and nl has to receive a tsunami. then play dumb, like they did with ns1 and ns2. but friendly offer to make an investigation on the matter.
why are you so obsessed with nukes?
your daughter is obsessed with an-al plugs, but i told her that my di-ck on her as-s would have a more widening effect
rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr tttttttttttt
to accelerate the instruction, just learn to take off. they are not gon a return to base because russia wil shoot thep out of the sky.
who’s gonna fly them? the ghost of kiev? or uk and dutch ghost pilots, who don’t actually materially exist, but are spirit beings?
peoples thoughts run on fumes.
f16’s were all great when missiles systems were not all that so we remember those days of invincibility. but the missile engineers have created much better missiles since then. and so this is all hot air. there is no magic bullet for ukraine.
last days of backmut. there is no more than 50 meters of denazification and the glory of the russian army will shine over the filthy ameriscum imperialist hegemony ! and a significant blow to the reputation of its shitty military plus a terrible blow for the hohol ukroshit junta. now collect that jenny homo nazi piece of horseshit !
to much bla bla from nato.. sent then now…
what kind of loser chooses a nickname “the rat”. well maybe you really are a rat nigga
it’s the only language they speak.. bla bla bah nah nla bla. translation shit shit shit oh no shit.
don’t let nato build up their forces and equipment in western europe! saddam made that mistake in the iraq war. hit poland and the netherlands hard as these areas are used as supply hubs to store nato mutations
then shysters will put lightly trained ukrainian pilots into these old aircraft which would be up for sale soon anyway. working out a price is all that remains. a price of a pilot? meh. swapping old equipment for new is all that matters.
who’s going to fly them?
russia should get out of ukraine before this nightmare impoldes in putin’s face. what exactly is russia’s next strategy? i can’t see any. almost every russian response is reactionary. ukraine has had the initiative for over a month now.
time to ultimatum nato.
now the fools just have to procure someone to fly them and maintain them. oh, and also hope russia doesn’t use them for target practice. by the way: whatever happened to the much blabbered about challenger, leopard and abraham tanks?