F-16s are likely to arrive in Ukraine by late 2023 - White House

This opinion was expressed by National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby, Fox News reports.

“What they really need are the 4 As: artillery, ammunition, air defense and armor (tanks). On all four of those, we have provided an extraordinary amount of support at, quite frankly, unprecedented speed. Those are the four capabilities that they need most. And if you’ll look at the packages… You’ll see that we are trying to get them those kinds of capabilities,” he said.

According to Kirby, what Ukraine needs most is not airplanes, but artillery.

“The F-16s will get there probably towards the end of the year. But it’s not our assessment that F-16s alone would be enough to turn the tide here. What they really need more than anything of all those 4 As is artillery. That’s why the President made a difficult decision to provide cluster munitions as a bridging solution as we build up our production capacity of normal conventional artillery rounds. They’re firing thousands of them a day. It’s really a gunfight,” he summarized.

F-16 fighters for Ukraine

On May 21, US President Joe Biden approved the training of Ukrainians on F-16s. Volodymyr Zelenskyy assured that Ukraine would not use these aircraft to strike at Russian territory. Defense Ministry adviser Yuriy Sak said that Ukraine hopes to receive the first modern American F-16 fighters in the fall of 2023.

On May 25, at a meeting in the Ramstein format, it was announced that the coalition to train the Ukrainian Armed Forces with F-16s would be led by Denmark and the Netherlands and would include four other countries: Norway, Belgium, Portugal, and Poland. 

One of the leaders of the "aviation coalition," the Netherlands, announced that training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s would begin in the coming months.

On June 15, following the Ramstein meeting, Stoltenberg said that training on the F-16 had already begun. Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin noted the rapid progress in this area, and a spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force said that they wanted a quick result, but that "the process is delayed."

The same day, it was reported that Denmark and the Netherlands plan to start training Ukrainian pilots this summer and will establish a training center in an Eastern European NATO country.

Following the Ramstein meeting, Ukrainian Defense Minister Reznikov expressed confidence that we would have a "bird coalition." He also assured that the pilots of the Ukrainian Air Force can master the Western F-16 fighters faster than Ukraine's allies expect, and the four-month period looks realistic, while technicians need more time.

According to a Politico source, a coalition of Western countries is considering Romania as a place to train Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.

On June 22, Denmark requested assistance from the United States to train Ukrainian pilots in the use of F-16 fighters. On June 26, Acting Defense Minister of Denmark, Troels Lund Poulsen, announced the commencement of training for pilots from Ukraine on Western F-16 fighter jets.

On July 1, President Zelenskyy mentioned that the schedule for training Ukrainian pilots on Western F-16 fighter jets has not been finalized yet, and some foreign partners are causing delays.

On July 6, media reported that Romania would become a base for training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s. On July 7, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala announced at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Prague that the country will supply helicopters and train pilots to fly F-16s.

On July 11, Ukraine agreed to train Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 combat aircraft with France. On the same day, Ukraine signed a memorandum with 11 partner countries to create a coalition to train pilots on F-16 fighter jets.

Ukraine's Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba says that the first F-16 fighter jets are likely to fly in Ukraine's skies by the end of March 2024.

Also on July 15, European countries which had promised to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s said they were still waiting for the United States to officially approve the program.

On Sunday, July 16, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said that the US would not postpone training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, and Biden allowed European countries to start training.