Historical Decision On F-16: Ukraine Will Get Special Jets And Not Only

The US allowed Denmark to use classified documents.

The US has approved the transfer of F-16 instructional materials to Ukraine, according to a Biden administration official and a US official, as the program to train Ukrainian pilots on the American jets is set to begin.

This is reported by CNN TV channel with a reference to its sources, including in the Administration of the US President Joe Biden.

“We can confirm the Department (of defense — edit.) has recently approved a request from F-16 training partner Denmark related to their effort to stand up pilot and maintenance training programs,” said the official in President Joe Biden's administration.

The approval includes training modules, documentation, and classroom training materials, the official said, which contains information about sensitive US technology. This is why it required preliminary coordination with Washington.

The approval of the third-party transfer request from Denmark was one of the critical steps before Ukrainian fighter pilots could begin training to fly the fourth-generation jets.

Earlier, the United States granted permission to send F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine, as soon as the pilots undergo appropriate training.

In July this year, Ukraine signed a memorandum with 11 allied coalition states with an open application. Among other things, the memorandum spelled out the conditions for conducting exercises for pilots of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Initially, it was about American F-16 aircraft.

The international group included:

Denmark and the Netherlands (official initiators);

Belgium;

Canada;

Luxembourg;

Norway;

Poland;

Portugal;

Romania;

Great Britain;

Sweden.

Features of F-16 fighters from Denmark and the Netherlands

The F-16 is an American multifunctional single-engine light fighter, one of the most massive among its class and generation. Its characteristics not significantly, but are

superior to the Soviet MiGs in service with Russia and Ukraine. First of all, electronics and compatibility with more powerful and accurate Western shells.

Their final compilation was produced at Fokker in the Netherlands and SABCA in Belgium for Denmark and the Netherlands, and production began in 1978 and was completed in the mid-1990s.

These two countries in the 1990s carried out the modernization of fighters under the Mid-Life Update or MLU program, which included a full overhaul and strengthening of the design.