Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said Warsaw was “ready” to start training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s after President Biden signed off on the delivery of the American-made aircraft.
The comments came after the EU’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, said the training of Ukrainian pilots on F-16s had already begun in several countries, including Poland. But Blaszczak said that wasn’t true.
“We’re ready. The Polish side is ready to train pilots on F-16 aircraft. Such training has not yet begun,” Blaszczak said, according to AFP.
Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren made similar comments, saying a coalition of countries is ready to train Ukrainian pilots but that it hasn’t started in Poland or anywhere else.
“It is a co-effort with Denmark, Belgium, UK, and other allies, so a coordinated effort. But we will speed up now that we know that we have the green light,” Ollongren said.
While Biden has given the green light for F-16 deliveries, there is still a long way to go before the aircraft make it to the battlefield. Estimates for how long the training will take vary significantly from as little as four months up to two years.
The provision of Western-made fighter jets for Ukraine marks a significant escalation of NATO support for Kyiv and its involvement in the war. Russia has said the move brings “colossal risks,” a warning brushed off by President Biden.
Poland is next dispensable pawn in the game against Russia.
BDS Poland
It seems to me that Poland is less a pawn and more a trouble maker.
I suppose in a month, they’ll declare these “Ukrainians” are ACE pilots ready to take on Russia. Until one of them is shut down, and expose western pilots in Ukrainian uniforms.
I want the weed you are smoking.
With your poor judgment, I prefer you stay sober and alert.
Two years is a closer estimate on how long it takes to train a fighter jet pilot, and to be “experienced” it takes longer. Be rest assured, the pilots manning those F-16s going to the Ukraine will be mostly American.
“Poland ‘Ready’ to Start Training Ukrainians on F-16s”
F-16 or MiG-29 it’s all the same to S300, S350, S400 and Su-57s with R37 missiles. Easy to target and shoot these out of the sky with loss of the pilots.
Oh no, it’s Sullivan, Blinken, Nuland, Biden… Blah blah blah
“The official said training a person from scratch to operate a NATO-made warplane could take as long as four years, while an experienced pilot used to Ukrainian jets would need four to nine months.” – Reuters
Something tells me that we will have been pushed into WWIII by the Straussian neocons way before this happens.
Current estimates are down to 4 months – seeing as WWIII did not start over the first 450 days why would you expect it to start because the Ukrainians are going to get some very dated planes?