The first group of Ukrainian military pilots completed training in France on Alphajet jet trainers.

The General Staff of the French Army on Friday reported about this on September 20.

The training of Ukrainians has been going on since March this year. It is noted that the number of pilots who had completed the course met the operational needs of Ukraine.

Training of Ukrainian pilots is part of the defense assistance from France.

Future Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilots were announced to undergo an accelerated training course in France on Alphajet jet trainers in June 2024.

The details of the training were published in a report by the French newspaper Le Monde.

The journalists were the first to be admitted to an unnamed air base in southwestern France, where a group of young Ukrainian pilots is training.

The French Air and Space Force has pledged to train 26 Ukrainian pilots in two years. It is noted that some of them had never flown before, while others had experience flying L-39 Albatros training aircraft.

After several months of training in the UK, including English language training, a group of Ukrainian pilots arrived in France in March of this year to begin their theoretical and practical training.

The training of the Ukrainian military is based on a shortened program – only six months compared to the usual eighteen-month course.

Training

Alphajet jet trainers are used for flight training. They are equipped with a dashboard that mimics that of F-16 fighter jets.

Immediately upon arrival, Ukrainian pilots were “put under a hood,” as a French officer put it. Even during the report, they were forbidden to talk to the press for security reasons. Only their ages were reported: 21 to 23 years old.