MILAN – The Belgian government said it’s going to provide an undisclosed variety of F-16 fighters to Ukraine from 2025, a call some are calling a compromise between the political factions that make up the country’s ruling coalition.
On Oct. 11, Belgium put an end to the wavering stance it had adopted in recent months on the problem of sending F-16s to Ukraine.
“Belgium from 2025 shall be ready to provide F-16s to Ukraine,” Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told reporters following his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Brussels.
The official added, nevertheless, that such a call must be confirmed by the country’s next government following elections next May.
The announcement originally was made by Defense Minister Ludivine Dedonder on Wednesday in an interview with local broadcaster Bel RTL, during which she explained that the specifics of the agreement will “rely on the build-up of Belgium’s recent F-35 capabilities.”
The deal will further entail the training of Ukrainian pilots and mission planners, which is able to begin in 2024, and two Belgian corporations, Sabena Engineering and Patria Bec, will provide essential technical support for the F-16 fleet, in line with a Belgian MoD press release. In September, Belgium joined the coalition of a dozen other countries providing F-16 courses.
Rodolphe Polis, press officer on the Belgian MoD, told Defense News that the country currently has 53 F-16s in its inventories.
In 2018, Brussels signed a multi-billion dollar contract with Lockheed Martin for the availability of 34 F-35 fighter jets which can be set to exchange the aging F-16s it possesses. Nonetheless, the timeline for these deliveries has already been delayed.
“In April 2023, Minister Dedonder confirmed that only two F-35s out of the initial 4 could be delivered in the course of the first quarter of 2024,” Alain De Neve, researcher on the Belgium-based Royal Higher Institute for Defense think tank told Defense News. “Which means that the F-16 to F-35 transition could face hiccups, meanwhile Belgium is obliged to take care of an operational fleet of aircraft, particularly for its joint missions within the Baltics.”
Belgium contributes to the surveillance of this airspace as a part of NATO’s enhanced vigilance activities and Baltic Air Policing. It was also one in all the primary international customers of the F-16, receiving its first deliveries over 40 years ago.
The news that the jets is not going to reach Ukraine before two more years have deceived some observers, as Ukrainian officials have been heavily lobbying for these weapons to succeed in the war-torn country as soon as possible.
For De Neve, it’s somewhat surprising that Belgium could be singled out on this issue.
“The choice to send F-16s to Ukraine represents, as is commonly the case in Belgium, one based on a compromise between the varied political sensitivities that compose the ruling coalition government… This could be a complex process and it’s true, out of sync with events,” he said.
Nonetheless, he argues that the deadline must be placed within the broader context of other pledges made by F-16 donating countries.
“As early as January 2023, the Netherlands indicated that they were willing to deliver F-16s to Ukraine, but US approval was crucial, which got here within the spring. This implies it has been ten months for the reason that first delivery guarantees were made, and no aircraft has yet been transferred to Ukrainian forces,” De Neve stated.
Government officials have in recent months voiced the growing possibility that the Russia-Ukraine war could turn right into a frozen conflict, that will last anywhere between several years to a decade.
Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo is a Europe correspondent for Defense News. She covers a wide selection of topics related to military procurement and international security, and focuses on reporting on the aviation sector. She is predicated in Milan, Italy.