Ukraine has not received almost half of the promised F-16s due to delivery delays - media
Kyiv • UNN
Belgium and Norway are delaying the transfer of 36 fighter jets due to problems with F-35s and aircraft repairs. Currently, Ukraine has received only a portion of the aircraft from Denmark and the Netherlands.
The Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has been fully operating F-16 fighters on the battlefield for a long time to perform various tasks, but the delivery of almost half of the aircraft has been delayed for one reason or another. This was reported by Defence Express, informs UNN.
Details
It is noted that two countries from the fighter coalition - Belgium and Norway - are having problems with the transfer of multi-role F-16 fighters to Ukraine. To date, they have not delivered a single aircraft, although both joined the initiative to strengthen the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine with these aircraft back in 2023.
Belgium, which is supposed to supply as many as 30 fighters, says that the delay is in turn related to the delay in the supply of American F-35 fighters to the Belgian air force - the first aircraft arrived in Belgium in October last year, 7 years after the contract was signed
It is indicated that Norway, which officially promised Ukraine six aircraft and has also not delivered any yet, has problems with the restoration and repair of fighters at the Sabena Engineering plant in Belgium - and all six fighters are currently there - two of which participated in the training process of Ukrainian pilots and ultimately need repair, and four more were generally sent as machine kits.
In total, 36 fighters from Belgium and Norway are slightly less than half of all fighters promised to Ukraine. In total, these are four countries, in addition to Belgium (promised 30, delivered 0) and Norway (officially promised 6, delivered 0), these are also the Netherlands (all 24 fighters delivered) and Denmark (officially reported the transfer of 12 out of 19, deliveries were also supposed to be completed by the end of last year)
The authors note that this refers to a total of 79 promised aircraft, of which 36 units constitute 45.5%.
Recall
France is trying to negotiate with Greece on the transfer of Mirage 2000-5 fighters, which are in service with the Greek Air Force, to Ukraine. Athens is still refusing, despite negotiations and proposals from Paris.