In a wide-ranging interview on defense related issues with Belgian’s Le Soir on Thursday, Feb. 20, Belgium’s Air Force Chief of Staff General Frederik Vansina said the first transfer of the promised 30 decommissioned F-16 fighter aircraft to Ukraine has been delayed.
He explained that this was a knock-on effect of the continuing delays in the production of the US F-35A Joint Strike Fighter program. The aircraft needed to replace the Belgian aging F-16s were slated to start deliveries in 2023 but to date only one has been provided which is being used as a training platform for its pilots at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
“We now hope to start delivering the first aircraft [to Kyiv] by the end of this year,” Vansina said.
Belgium joined the aviation coalition for Ukraine in October 2023, alongside the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway, and in May 2024 said it had identified 30 F-16s which it would provide in a phased delivery program starting at the end of 2024 for completion by 2028.
Those plans have been hit by several unforeseen obstacles since being announced.
The first issue seemed to be the shortage of trained Ukrainian F-16 pilots which Belgian mainstream media said had led to a decision to hold back deliveries until sufficient aircrew were available. An accelerated training program for Ukrainian pilots has been beset by language problems and a shortage of available training slots available at the F-16 flying training units (FTUs).
Vansina seemed to confirm this on Thursday when he said, “The presence of combat aircraft makes no sense if there’s a shortage of pilots.” He said the F-16 is a highly effective but complex platform that can require hundreds of hours of flight training and a dependable logistic and maintenance base.
He added, however, that the current delay could be a “blessing in disguise” as it would allow more time to train pilots and ground support crews.
Another issue that has so far been largely glossed over is both the age of the Belgian F-16s and a shortage in the spare parts necessary to keep the aircraft operational.
The F-16 has a nominal 8,000 flying hours operational life after which after there is a danger of structural wear and tear reaching levels that make it ever harder to maintain airworthiness. The Belgian 40-aircraft F-16 fleet was produced between 1979 and 1993, which suggests many will be close to or have even exceeded that threshold.
Vansina said that operating aircraft too far beyond the programmed flight hours “does so at its own risk,” without being drawn on how many of the Belgian Vipers fall into that category he indicated that some would retain combat airworthiness while those who don’t could be a source of spare parts.
This could be critical as Belgium had tried unsuccessfully to source an enhanced stockpile of aircraft spares from the manufacturer Lockheed Martin and other F-16 users. Vansina said, “We asked Lockheed to supply us with additional parts, but they refused because they’re no longer produced.”
He said that the shift of focus to the needs of F-35 users has led to parts for the older aircraft being abandoned affecting not only Belgium and Ukraine but the dozens of nations that still operate the F-16 who were also reluctant to provide any of their stocks to Brussels because “They realize these cannot be replenished,” he said.