The Danish government said on Monday that training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16 jets has begun and that the country’s fleet of old U.S. fighters will be taken out of service two years earlier than planned.
Acting Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said that the new fighter planes, called F-35s, will be ready by 2025. At first, the move was set to happen in 2027.
Lund Poulsen said that NATO member Denmark “has taken the step of starting a training and further education effort for Ukrainian pilots.”
“We will also think about whether we should actually give the Danish F-16 fighters to Ukraine and how many we should give,” he said.
Lund Poulsen told Danish station DR that Ukrainian pilots need to train for six to eight months before Danish F-16 planes can be given to Ukraine.
“This doesn’t mean you can’t make a choice ahead of time. “But (the F-16 planes) will stay in Denmark until 2024,” Lund Poulsen said.
Denmark has bought 27 F-35A fighter jets, which will replace its 30 F-16s, which are more than 40 years old and are no longer safe to fly. From the end of 2023 to the end of 2025, the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter jets will take over.
Ukraine has been asking for fighter jets from the West for a long time to help it fight back against Russia’s full-scale attack, which started in February 2022. The U.S. and other NATO countries were at first hesitant, but they recently agreed to let Ukrainian pilots learn how to fly F-16 jets. However, none of them have yet promised to hand over any planes.
