The amount of time required for Ukrainian pilots to train on F-16 could be much shorter than announced previously. Three months is enough for experienced pilots, states Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, Director of the U.S. Air National Guard, Breaking Defense reports.
The American official has all the factual information he needs to make such statements. As a reminder, it was the Air National Guard air base in the United States that was attended by two average Ukrainian pilots in February-March this year to assess their skills.
Read more: The First Group of Ukrainian Pilots, Engineers Has Left for F-16 Training, Next Ones in Turn
Precisely speaking, they took tests at the Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona. This base hosts the Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center.
Lt. General Michael Loh officially confirmed the assessment indeed took place and announced the results. According to him, it would take three months to prepare experienced fighter pilots to operate the F-16 to its full potential in combat conditions. Although three months is the minimum and only for those who have real combat experience and are fluent in English.
The less they know the foreign language or real battle, the more time it would take to make them proficient at piloting the F-16, up to 9 months in total. This, worth noting, is the length of a standard course for American pilots with basic schooling of aircraft piloting.
Regardless of the length of the course, each pilot will receive full and comprehensive training on the modern Western fighter.
"We will train them to do the full multi-role spectrum of what we can expect in their theater of conflict," the Air National Guard Director said.
That said, the previous reports about four-month language courses plus six months of learning the ropes to F-16, coming from anonymous sources quoted by Western media, might be exaggerated. And surely, we should mention here the Pentagon's point of view – 18 months at least was the estimate relevant just this spring.
However, at the same time, Michael Loh warns that once the Ukrainian pilots complete the training, they won't be ready to start doing combat sorties at that instant. After getting coached by the U.S. Air Guard, they will arrive in Europe, and from then they will get to Ukraine and become allowed to take off for missions.
On the part of Defense Express, we should add that the "stopover" in Europe is due to the need to get additional familiarization with the F-16 MLU (Mid Life Update) version – it can differ from the variant in service with the U.S. National Guard.
Also, Michael Loh mentioned an important detail: the Ukrainians would get "priority training." In other words, the schedules of other pilots would be rearranged specially for the guests from Ukraine.
Read more: The Air Force Spokesperson Reveals What Ukraine Needs Apart From F-16 Aircraft
