Western allies eye Romania as training ground for Ukrainian pilots flying F-16s

Several Western countries are reportedly looking at Romania to serve as a training ground for Ukrainian pilots flying F-16 fighter jets.

“Romania is one of the sites that the coalition is looking at for hosting training in,” said a Western official cited by Politico, along with a current and a former Defense Department official who was granted anonymity.

Representatives of the US arms and aerospace company Lockheed Martin said that they are ready to train Ukrainian pilots to fly and do maintenance on F-16s. Details about the training program have been slow to emerge since president Joe Biden lent his support to the effort last month.

The Netherlands and Denmark are among the advocates of the training program, but negotiations are ongoing, especially about which countries would provide the jets.

European officials would neither confirm nor deny that the proposal to train Ukrainian pilots in Romania is under discussion. A Dutch Defense Ministry spokesperson would say only that the partners are working to establish an F-16 training center in Eastern Europe.

“Delivery requires a separate decision-making process,” Politico sources say.

“The last few weeks I’ve had several opportunities to discuss possible models for the training of Ukrainian pilots and support staff for the F-16 jets with my colleagues. I am very pleased to see that the coalition behind training pilots and support staff for F-16 continuously broadens,” Denmark’s acting minister of defense Troels Lund Poulsen said in a statement. “It will be an important strategic step in the long term,” he added.

The UK, US, Portugal, Norway, and Belgium are also part of the coalition of states backing the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s. The pilots will first go through basic training and an English language course supervised by the UK before training with the jets.

(Photo source: Mapn.ro)