Ukraine’s government has announced it’s cutting training time for new F-16 pilots to fill cockpits faster. The Air Force has received dozens of Vipers in the last few months and the country is anxious to put them into action but the pilot pipeline isn’t keeping up. “The basic training program needs to be optimized. This will enable us to train more pilots to defend our country,” Deputy Defence Minister Serhiy Melnkyk said. “Ukrainian combat aviation must eventually gain air superiority, as this paves the way for the success of our actions on the front line.” Aerial warfare experts are concerned the scheme may backfire.
There has been widespread criticism of the plan with critics arguing the F-16 and its weapons systems are so complex, perhaps compared to the Soviet-era systems mainly in use by Ukraine, that graduates of the truncated program will be ill-prepared to use the jets effectively in combat. The major bottleneck in training so far has been language training. The Viper speaks English and lack of fluency by pilots hampers communication that’s vital to get the most out of them. It’s also feared that the measure, which is being billed as temporary to address a short term problem, will infect the whole Ukrainian Air Force training regime and water down its overall combat effectiveness.
