Speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: training of Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 will take 4 months

11:43 19 May Kyiv, Ukraine

Ukrainian pilots who will master the F-16 aircraft have been tested in the United States. According to the results of testing, it became known that the retraining of Ukrainian pilots will take about 4 months.
 
Yuriy Ignat, speaker of the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Yuriy Ignat, announced this on the air of the United News telethon, commenting on the training of Ukrainian pilots to use the F-16.
“Our pilots were evaluated. These were combat pilots, with combat experience, with a large flying time.. Now everyone has such a flight time, today all pilots in combat conditions perform extremely difficult tasks, do heroic things on old equipment that is twice as old as the pilots themselves ... Two such pilots were tested in the USA, and conclusions were drawn on this testing, and on flight simulators, and on flight simulators, it was estimated how long it would take them to master western techniques. This refers to an aircraft like the F-16 ... Our American partners concluded that perhaps up to four months would be enough for already trained pilots like ours to simply retrain. Not to teach, but to retrain for another type of aircraft,” the speaker explained.
According to Ignat, we are talking not only about take-off and landing skills, but also about the conduct of hostilities and the use of weapons.
“Each pilot has his own individual training, each pilot will have an individual program, who is sooner, who is later, but the pilots are already preparing, studying theoretical things and making, accordingly, huge steps. Let's not forget about the engineers, about the officers of the combat control,” Ignat emphasized, adding that the use of the F-16 can radically change the situation on the battlefield.
Answering a question about the ability of European countries to train Ukrainian pilots, the speaker expressed the hope that “there is a place for everyone in the European family”, because we are not talking about such large volumes.
“Today, we cannot immediately send all the pilots to study abroad,” Ignat said.
He also expressed hope that European countries will unite in the issue of training Ukrainian pilots and the supply of F-16 aircraft.