Which nations have F-16 fighters? Many, and now Ukraine has them, too.
Ukraine has started using newly arrived U.S.-made F-16 Fighting Falcon jets from Western allies in aerial combat against Russia, Paste BN reported Tuesday.
The first planes arrived in August. Ukraine used them against a Russian missile attack on Aug. 26, the Kyiv Independent reported.
Deliveries of the jets are designed to bolster Ukrainian defenses and challenge Russian air superiority. U.S. allies supplied the jets, and Ukrainian pilots have been training for months in the U.S. to fly them.
Allies who are delivering jets to Ukraine include the Netherlands, with 24, Norway with 22 and Denmark and Belgium with an unspecified number of the aircraft.
Ukraine, which has older Soviet-era jets, began asking for F-16s soon after the Russian invasion in February 2022.
The U.S., which has the right to block NATO allies from transferring jets to Ukraine, at first refused but later allowed Ukraine to get them through third-party transfers. The U.S. is not sending them directly to Ukraine.
F-16s are top-rated combat jets
In response to the impending deliveries, Russia has stepped up its attacks in Ukrainian. Russian forces used missiles against aviation bases and defense industry targets recently, Reuters reported.
Russia has said it would attack Western military equipment sent to Ukraine, including F-16s, according to the Kyiv Post.
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What countries have F-16s?
To determine which nations have the largest number of F-16 Fighting Falcons, Paste BN examined FlightGlobal's 2024 World Air Forces report, a publication that covers the aviation and aerospace sector. These nations were rated based on the quantity of F-16s now in use.
Countries with the most F-16s
According to the Cirium fleets data, after the United States with 897, Turkey has the most F-16s now in service at 243, followed by Israel with 224, Egypt with 218 and South Korea with 167.
Taiwan has the most orders for F-16s with 66, followed closely by Ukraine with 61.
Learning to fly an F-16 can take 9 months
An F-16 is a sophisticated aircraft that is challenging to fly. It can take as long as nine months and 90 hours of flight time for a pilot to learn the jet’s systems, according to the Council on Foreign Relations.
The F-16 is considered a fourth-generation fighter jet, the modern standard in combat aircraft, according to militaryfactory.com.
Ukrainian pilots are training at the Arizona Air National Guard base in Tucson, Arizona, where the 162nd Wing conducts instruction for foreign crews.
SOURCE Paste BN Network reporting and research; Reuters; Geopolitical Intelligence Services; Council on Foreign Relations; Atlantic Council