The first Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters to be donated to Ukraine following Russia’s February 2022 invasion have now entered the Ukrainian Air Force inventory and can be worked up for operations.
In a video posted on the X/Twitter account of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on 4 August 2024, Zelenskyy could be seen addressing a ceremony for Ukrainian Air Force pilots and maintainers at an unknown location with two F-16s behind him sporting Ukrainian insignia.
The video footage also showed two additional F-16s conducting a flypast of the ceremony.
“We are now in a new phase of development for the air force of the armed forces of Ukraine,” said Zelenskyy in his address. “We have done a lot to transition the Ukrainian Air Force to a new aviation standard: Western combat aviation. From the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to close the Ukrainian sky from Russian missiles and aircraft.
“We have held hundreds of meetings and negotiations to strengthen the capabilities of our aviation, air defence, and defence forces,” Zelenskyy continued. “We often heard the word ‘impossible’ in response, but we made possible what was our ambition, our defence need, and now it is a reality in our sky: F-16s in Ukraine. We ensured this.
The Ukrainian president then added, “I am proud of all our guys who are skilfully mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our country. I thank our team for this result. I thank all the partners who are truly helping with the F-16s, and the first countries that accepted our request for aircraft – Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States – and all our partners; we value your support.
“I wish our air force and all our warriors to feel the pride of Ukrainians in our combat aviation and to bring Ukraine the combat results that will bring our victory closer – our just peace for Ukraine.”
The first batch of F-16s are understood to have arrived in Ukraine in late July and are likely to have come from Denmark and possibly also the Netherlands.
Speaking at the NATO summit in Washington, DC, on 10 July 2024, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said F-16s were en route to Ukraine from Denmark and the Netherlands and that those aircraft “will be flying in the skies of Ukraine this summer to make sure that Ukraine can continue to effectively defend itself against the Russian aggression”.
Denmark and the Netherlands both committed to donating F-16s to Ukraine on 20 August 2023. Denmark said it would provide 19 aircraft, while Zelenskyy said the Netherlands had committed to providing 42.
Belgium, meanwhile, signed a security agreement with Kyiv on 28 May 2024 that confirmed it would transfer 30 F-16s to Ukraine.
Norway, which decided in 2023 to donate a number of F-16s to Ukraine under the framework of the Air Force Capability Coalition (AFCC) led by Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States, stated on 10 July 2024 that it would donate six aircraft, with deliveries to start in 2024. The Royal Norwegian Air Force phased out its F-16s in 2021 following its adoption of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, but sold 32 F-16s to Romania.
The F-16s that Ukraine is receiving are F-16AM/BM variants: single-seat F-16As and twin-seat F-16Bs that have undergone a mid-life upgrade that, among other features, introduced an improved radar – the APG-66(V)2A – that offered the ability to track and engage more targets simultaneously and at greater ranges.
Adoption of the F-35 by the European nations of NATO has meant that the F-16AM/BMs are the only aircraft type available for donation to Ukraine in significant numbers.
