Ukraine Will Receive Belgian F-16s a Year Later Through US

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-35.

The Belgian Chief of Defense Frederik Vansina stated this in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Le Soir.

Due to delays in the delivery of new aircraft to replace the F-16, Belgium has postponed the transfer of its old fighters to Ukraine for at least a year.

“The transfer of the first of 30 F-16s to Ukraine from Belgium is postponed for at least a year, until the end of 2025,” said General Vansina.

The contract for the supply of the next-generation F-35 fighter jets to the Belgian Air Force was signed in 2018, and the first aircraft were to be delivered in 2023. Since then, the first aircraft has been delivered under the order, and Belgian pilots are still undergoing training at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, USA.

The initial operational readiness of the Belgian aircraft for combat use with the possibility of limited expeditionary operations is scheduled for mid-2027, and full readiness is expected only by the end of 2030.

European F-16s for Ukraine

Preliminary plans called for the delivery of the Belgian fighters in 2025 after the F-35As ordered by Belgium start to enter service with the Belgian Air Component. Due to the intensification of Russian aviation, there were attempts to reduce the timeframe for the first aircraft to arrive by the end of 2024, which was not achieved.

Belgium joined the Air Force Coalition for Ukraine last year, along with the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, to provide Kyiv with combat aircraft to counter the Russian invasion.

Initially, the country’s participation was limited to training and logistical support, but later the Belgian government decided to supply 30 aircraft. The completion of the delivery was linked to the arrival of their replacements and was expected in 2028.

This month, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said that Denmark had already delivered most of the promised F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine as part of military aid.

As of November, the Air Force had 6 Danish multi-role fighters. However, according to the country’s plans, it was supposed to give Ukraine a total of 19 F-16s, which were modernized under the Mid-Life Update (MLU) program in the 2000s.

Also in early February, Ukraine received a second batch of aircraft from the Netherlands, which pledged to provide a total of 24 fighter jets.