By the end of the year, Belgium will deliver three F-16 fighter-jets to Ukraine. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted plans of the delivery on social media site X. He intends to use an accelerated procedure to make this possible.
Ukraine’s President Zelensky thanks Belgium for delivery of three F-16 fighter-jets by the end of the year
Colin Clapson
Published:
The planned delivery of the three F-16 fighter jets was announced earlier this year by Defence Minister Theo Francken (Flemish nationalist N-VA), both in the Belgian parliament and on the sidelines of President Zelensky’s visit to Brussels.
In total, Belgium is supplying seven F-16 fighter-jets to Ukraine this year: four of them have already been handed over to the Ukrainians but are de facto still at Sabca in Gosselies. At the aerospace company, the aircraft are being used to train Ukrainian technicians to work on them.
These aircraft are too old to fly and can, at best, only be used for spare parts.
The three aircraft that Belgium will deliver by the end of the year can, however, still be used, explains VRT NEWS defence specialist Jens Franssen.
“They have nearly 8,000 flying hours on the clock, which means they are virtually no longer airworthy here.” However, they are still good enough to be used over Ukraine as air defence, to shoot down Russian drones and missiles. “Because that is cheaper than using expensive and scarce Patriot missiles.”