During the NATO summit on 11 July, Defense Minister Bjørn Arild Gram (Sp) signed a joint statement with Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Romania and the United Kingdom on training of the Ukrainian air force.
– The countries in the coalition want to help Ukraine so that they can defend their own airspace. If we can achieve this, we will form a joint coalition to train the Ukrainian air force in the operation and maintenance of the F-16 fighter and with the possibility of including other types of fighter at a later stage, said Bjørn Arild Gram.
– We agree that continued support for Ukraine is essential given Russia’s brutal and unprovoked aggression against Ukraine. The F-16 coalition will initially focus on training. Norway aims to participate with personnel in the training conducted in Denmark, said Gram.
Coalition members agreed to start training Ukrainian pilots, technicians and support personnel who will equip the Ukrainian Air Force with basic capabilities for operation, service and maintenance of F-16 fighter jets. This includes providing equipment, instructors and other relevant staff. All training activities will be conducted outside Ukraine.
Joint statement:
UKRAINE AIR FORCE F-16 TRAINING JOINT COALITION STATEMENT
The Defense Ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom share the belief that continued support to Ukraine is essential given Russia’s brutal and unprovoked aggression. .
The parties agreed that in order to assist Ukraine in defending its airspace, they will form a joint coalition to train the Ukrainian Air Force in operating and maintaining F-16 fighter aircraft, subject to the necessary authorizations and with the possibility to include other types of fighter aircraft at a later stage.
The parties agreed to begin training of relevant Ukrainian pilots, technicians and support staff, which will provide the Ukrainian Air Force with the basic capabilities to operate, service and maintain F-16 fighter aircraft. This includes providing equipment, trainers and other relevant staff for the training. All training activities will be conducted outside Ukraine.
The focus of the coalition will be on training, but will also in time be ready to consider other lines of effort related to ensuring Ukraine has a fully functional F-16 capability.
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