Future Ukrainian F-16 pilots are taking an intensified training course in France on Alphajet jet trainers.

Details of the training of Ukrainian pilots were published in the report of the French edition of Le Monde.

Journalists of the publication became the first to be admitted to an unnamed air base located in southwestern France. It is there that a group of young Ukrainian pilots trains.

The French Air Force pledged to train 26 Ukrainian pilots in two years. However, according to the publication, there are currently only ten of them. Some of them have never flown, others have experience in piloting L-39 Albatros training aircraft.

After several months of preparation in the UK, in particular for learning English, in March this year a group of pilots arrived in France, where they began theoretical and practical training. Immediately upon arrival, they “were placed under the cap,” as the French officer put it. Even while reporting, they were barred from speaking to the press. Only their age was reported: from 21 to 23 years.

“Recruits are busy. Some, in the middle of the maps, are preparing to fly in a simulator, while a second group elsewhere, in the middle of the airfield, is preparing to take off on a two-seat plane with an instructor,” says a reporter at Le Monde.

The training of the Ukrainian military is carried out under a reduced program at an accelerated pace. The training will last only six months, compared to the usual course of eighteen months.

For pilot flight training, Belgian-transferred modified Alphajet jet trainers are used. They are equipped with an instrument panel that simulates a similar F-16 in fighters.

To ensure the proper operation of these aircraft and the start of training flights, the French Aerospace Forces had to stop the process of decommissioning them at the last moment.

There are no F-16 fighters at the airbase, which should be the culmination of the training of Ukrainian pilots. Therefore, after completing the training, Ukrainian pilots will go to the training center in Romania.

As previously reported, now in Romania there is a European training center for training pilots of F-16 fighters, which was opened at the end of last year. Ukrainian pilots will enter the first wave of training on fighters F-16 in the new center.

The Netherlands, within the framework of the aviation coalition, provides its aircraft for the preparation of Ukrainians. By the end of the year, the country aims to transfer up to 18 F-16 fighters to the Romanian air base. The increase in the number of these aircraft should positively affect the quality and speed of training of Ukrainian pilots.