Air Force General Popov told why the training of AFU pilots to fly on the F-16 does not make sense
The US Congress is ready to allocate $ 100 million to retrain Ukrainian military pilots. The subsequent delivery of F-16 and F-15 combat aircraft to Kiev is also being considered. "Newspaper.Ru" together with military experts, I figured out how realistic and effective this training is.
The US House of Representatives approved the allocation of $ 100 million for training Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16 and F-15 fighter jets.
The author of the project was Republican Adam Kinzinger, a former lieutenant colonel of the US Air National Guard. He told Defense News that "the training of Ukrainian military pilots will take place at the base in Mississippi, as well as in Texas." The training period, according to him, will be three months.
According to Russian experts, this time is absolutely not enough.
"Theoretically, it is enough for an experienced military pilot to simply transfer to an air car of a similar class," he told the newspaper.En" Air Force Reserve Major General Vladimir Popov. - However, three months is enough just to switch to the basics of piloting, take-off and landing, the flight itself, but not combat use, which requires a longer time. Again, we are talking about retraining for American F-16 and F-15 fighters, which have their own characteristics and differ markedly from the MiG-29 and Su-27, which were operated by Ukrainian pilots. There are different tactics of air combat, and actions in a pair or group of aircraft, and many other features. In three months, the Americans will train Ukrainians not as pilots, but as suicide bombers."
At the same time, the general stressed that the training of pilots alone is "clearly not enough."
"Another significant nuance is the training of engineering and technical personnel, who will find it quite difficult to service American cars. They also need to be trained and this is also clearly not three months.
Up to the change of airfield lights, taxiways, and banal hangars for storing and repairing aircraft," Popov added.
In turn, publicist and military expert Vladislav Shurygin believes that the issue with the place of pilot training has not yet been resolved.
"There is a big question with the place of training of Ukrainian combat pilots. In the USA itself, it is far and expensive. It is possible that the Ukrainian "falcons" will be trained in neighboring Poland, where there are about fifty such aircraft in the Air Force. The retraining process can take at least six months, even for an already trained pilot on a Su-27 or MiG-29. These are completely different fighters, where not just the control is different, but a completely different system of interaction with colleagues in air combat," Shurygin said.
So far, we are talking only about the training of Ukrainian pilots for the development of American fighters. The deliveries of the F-16 and F-15 to Kiev themselves are considered hypothetical, and the White House has not made a decision on this.
Earlier, Washington refused to supply Kiev with its aircraft and forbade the transfer of Soviet-made fighters to Ukraine, which Poland and Slovakia insisted on, hoping to receive more advanced US fighters in return.
"Ukraine may eventually receive a maximum of 2-3 squadrons of American fighters. It doesn't make military sense. But here we see a purely commercial project, which is being lobbied by American politicians. Back in 2020, the United States approved the sale of 90 Lockheed Martin F-16 aircraft, which was officially announced by the Pentagon. 66 of them went to Taiwan. Proposals for the acquisition of F-16 fighters were also made to Ukraine. The planes will be sold and it does not matter that they will not help Kiev. They will pay for them from the US budget. The American military-industrial complex will receive money from American taxpayers. This is the whole point of this story," said Sergei Belousov, a member of the Board of Military Experts.
Victor Sokirko
