Belgian F-16s to arrive in Ukraine a year later due to F-35 delay
Belgium will not be able to hand over its F-16 fighters this year due to the postponement of the delivery of the ordered F-35s.
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The Chief of the Belgian General Staff, Frédéric Vansina, said this in an interview with Le Soir.
The delay in the delivery of the new aircraft forced Belgium to postpone the transfer of its F-16s to Ukraine for at least a year. According to Vansina, the delivery of the first 30 F-16s is postponed until the end of 2025.
The contract for the supply of the new generation F-35 fighter jets to the Belgian Air Force was signed in 2018, and the first deliveries were expected in 2023. Since then, Belgium has received only one aircraft, on which Belgian pilots are trained at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, USA.
The aircraft is an F-16. Illustration: AFP
The Belgian F-35s are scheduled to reach initial operational capability for combat use in mid-2027, with full readiness by the end of 2030. Due to the intensification of Russian aviation, there were attempts to accelerate the delivery by the end of 2024, but this was not achieved.
Belgium joined the aviation coalition for Ukraine along with the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, pledging to provide 30 F-16 fighter jets to Kyiv. The delivery was to take place after the F-35As were delivered to the Belgian Air Force combat units, and was expected to be completed in 2028.
Earlier this month, Ukraine's Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said that Denmark had already delivered most of the promised F-16s. As of November, the Air Force had 6 Danish multi-role fighters, which were modernised in the 2000s under the Mid-Life Update (MLU) programme. In total, Denmark plans to transfer 19 aircraft.
Also in early February, Ukraine received a second batch of F-16s from the Netherlands, which pledged to deliver a total of 24 fighters.
Source: Le Soir
