Ukraine Could Be Getting F-16s Way Ahead of Schedule

Ukraine could be set to receive F-16 fighter jets sooner than the expected schedule, according to comments made by John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council.

Kirby suggested in an interview with Fox News on Thursday that Ukraine could start to receive F-16s by the end of this year—significantly sooner than was previously anticipated.

His remarks come after 11 NATO countries pledged last month to train Ukrainian pilots in the operation of the F-16 fighters, with training expected to begin in Denmark in August.

In response to a question about providing supplies to Ukraine, Kirby said what the country needs is "the four As: artillery, ammunition, air defense and armor—tanks."

Kirby told Fox News' The Story with host Martha MacCallum that the U.S. had provided Ukraine with an "extraordinary amount of support at quite frankly unprecedented speed" and spoke about a recent support package before mentioning F-16s directly.

"Now look, the F-16s will get there, probably towards the end of the year, but it's not our assessment that F-16s alone would be enough to turn the tide here," Kirby told Fox News' The Story with host Martha MacCallum.

Newsweek has reached out to the Department of Defense via email for comment.

Kirby went on to say what Ukraine "really needs more than anything" was artillery.

"And that's why the president made a difficult decision to provide cluster munitions as a bridging solution as we build up our production capacity of normal, conventional artillery rounds," he said.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in an interview earlier this month that he expected the first F-16s in Ukrainian airspace by the end of the Q1 2024.

"Training should start sometime in August, maybe at the beginning of September. Simultaneously, legal decisions necessary for the transfer of the aircraft and the aircraft themselves will be prepared. I think that if Ukrainian pilots fly the first F-16s in Ukrainian airspace by the end of the first quarter of next year, then this will be according to the schedule," Kuleba said.

The first Ukrainian pilots are expected to be trained to operate F-16s by next year but training for those pilots is likely to begin in August. Training will take place first in Denmark until a center can be set up in Romania—both countries are members of NATO.

Denmark and the Netherlands, also a NATO member, are leading international efforts to train Ukrainian pilots.

"Hopefully, we will be able to see results in the beginning of next year," Denmark's acting defense minister Troels Lund Poulsen told reporters in Vilnius on July 11 on the sidelines of the NATO summit.

Lund Poulsen also told Danish broadcaster DR that Denmark is accelerating the replacement of its F-16 fleet with F-35s by two years with the newer fighter jets will be operational in Denmark's military by 2025.

"We will also consider whether we should make a concrete donation to Ukraine of the Danish F-16 fighters, and how many there should be," Lund Poulsen said.

Experts have previously told Newsweek that Ukraine would need around 100 well-operated F-16s to have a significant impact on its air force. No country has yet supplied Ukraine with F-16 fighter jets.