Ukraine’s loss of an F-16 fighter jet weeks after a handful of the aircraft arrived in the country is making Western officials wonder if the decision to accelerate pilot training was correct, The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
The jet was destroyed last week during a Russian drone and missile barrage, killing one of Ukraine’s most experienced pilots, Aleksey Mes. Ukrainian investigators have yet to reveal the cause.
Kiev lobbied Western donors to provide dozens of F-16s to bolster its dwindling Soviet-era air fleet. A small cadre of pilots was selected to undergo training courses in Denmark, the US, and Romania, though Kiev is months away from having enough men to deploy a full squadron.
The training focused on the types of missions Ukraine intends to give to F-16s, primarily interception of Russian cruise missiles, the WSJ said. There are no plans to adjust the program, but “the crash shows what happens when you try to rush things,” a senior Western defense official told the newspaper.
Before being given combat missions pilots normally train with their units for months, but the Ukrainian airmen engaged in the conflict right away. The rationale was that their pilots experienced with Soviet jets would have an edge over rookies.
There have been claims in Ukraine that the F-16 was shot down by a Patriot missile system, another weapon provided by the country's Western donors. The commander of the Air Force was fired days after the incident.
A source told the WSJ that the aircraft disappeared from radar shortly after a Russian missile exploded near it, possibly damaging the F-16.
Kiev has been rushing military personnel to the front line in order to make up for heavy battlefield losses, General Aleksandr Syrsky, the top commander of the armed forces, admitted in an interview with CNN on Thursday.
“Of course, everyone wants the level of training to be the best,” he told Christiane Amanpour. “At the same time, the dynamics of the front requires us to constantly put conscripted servicemen as soon as possible.”