When not in the cockpit, Ukrainian Air force fighter pilots are familiarizing themselves with flying F-16s by using desktop virtual reality flight simulators, according to reports.
The news comes as Ukrainian pilots prepare to soon begin flight training on the fighters in Arizona before taking delivery of donated jets pledged from Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway. Ukrainian defense officials have long sought access to the aircraft following Russia’s invasion in 2022.
“Of course, our goal is to have complete F-16 flight simulators, trainer aircrafts, and flight crew training centers in Ukraine. But everything starts small,” Ukrainian Air Force said Wednesday in a statement accompanying a video of training. “While our brothers master the F-16s abroad, the Ukrainian Air Force fighter pilots continue to protect the Ukrainian sky and destroy the occupiers on the ground. In their free time, the pilots get to know the cockpit of the F-16 in virtual reality and perform joint missions over the territory of Ukraine in sections, flights, and squadrons while being in different regions of Ukraine.”
Some Ukrainian pilots will travel to the U.S. next month for further training.
“We do expect Ukrainian pilots and maintainers to arrive in the United States soon to conduct the initial English language training, and then the pilot training to start in the weeks after that,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters on September 22.
As part of the training plan, “several Ukrainian pilots and dozens of maintainers,” will travel to the U.S., he said, adding that some pilots have already begun F-16 flight training in Denmark.
The desktop simulators are a time saver, according to Oleksii Diakiv, representative of the Air Force of Ukraine Training Command.
“These systems help us not to depend on the specific locations, not to depend on time,” he said. “They allow us to make the best use of those free minutes of training in order to be retraining for our partners’ aircraft.”
In an interview Wednesday, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren said the Netherlands will deliver F-16s to Ukraine in 2024. The timeline, however, will depend upon training of Ukrainian pilots, which is expected to take six to eight months, she said.
