Portugese Air Force and Romanian Air Force F-16 jets sit on the tarmac of Siauliai airport in Lithuania during the NATO exercise as part of the NATO Air Policing mission on July 4. John Thys/AFP via Getty Images
The US is still waiting for European officials to submit a final plan for training Ukrainian pilots on F-16 fighter jets, which the US will have to authorize before the program can actually begin, officials familiar with the matter told CNN.
The training is supposed to start this month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European officials have said publicly. But two months after President Joe Biden announced US support for training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s, there remain a number of critical details to work out.
It is also still unclear which countries will commit F-16s to the training program—and to Ukraine itself once the program is finished. Transferring the planes to Ukraine will require separate US approval.
US defense officials told CNN that the US is still deciding whether to send American pilots to help train the Ukrainians, but that no decisions will be made until a final training plan is authorized.
Some background: The training program is being supported by a coalition of 11 NATO countries and requires official US approval because the F16 is an American technology.
The course itself is expected to be conducted in Denmark and Romania, with help from the Netherlands, Belgium, Canada, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Sweden and the UK, officials have said. But the details, including the dates, locations, and length of the syllabus “are still being worked out,” National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby said during a briefing last week.
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CNN’s Oren Liebermann contributed to this report.
Source link: https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-08-01-23/index.html