Canada Joins 10 Other NATO Countries Pledging to Train Ukrainian Pilots on F-16 Jets

A US Air Force's (USAF) F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet in a file photo. (Manjunath Kiran/AFP via Getty Images)

Defence Minister Anita Anand announced that Canada has joined 10 other NATO allies to train Ukrainian Air Force pilots on the operation and maintenance of American-made F-16 fighter jets to aid Ukraine in its ongoing war with Russia.

The ministers of defence for Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and the UK also signed on to the joint coalition.

“The parties agree that in order to assist Ukraine in the defence of its airspace, they will establish a joint coalition on training of the Ukrainian Air Force in operating and maintaining F-16 fighter aircraft, in accordance with the necessary authorizations and with the possibility to include other types of fighter aircraft at a later stage,” Canada’s Department of National Defence (DND) wrote in a statement on July 12.

All countries signed on have agreed to begin training Ukrainian pilots, technicians, and support staff with “basic capabilities of operating, servicing and maintaining” F-16 jets manufactured by the American company Lockheed Martin. The F-16 was initially developed in the late 1970s.

“The coalition’s focus will be on training, but will also in due course be ready to consider other lines of effort related to ensuring Ukraine a fully functional F-16 capability,” DND wrote in its statement.

The department added that the coalition’s training of Ukrainian pilots will include making available the necessary equipment, trainers and other staff for F-16 training.

All the coalition’s training activities will be conducted outside of Ukraine.

Training Coalition

When asked by reporters on July 12 how many Canadian Armed Forces will be committed to the training efforts, Ms. Anand did not provide any specifics.

“At this point, we signed a document,” she told reporters in Vilnius, Lithuania, where she was attending the NATO Leaders’ Summit.

Ms. Anand added that she’s had “additional conversations” on the matter with Poland’s Defence Minister Mariusz Błaszczak.

“We have more work to do to iron out the specific contributions,” she said. “As I said, the general framework of our contribution to the F-16 coalition is going to be in the area of training and maintenance and so we need to specify exactly what that is going to include.”

The federal government also announced just before the NATO Leaders’ Summit this week that it will be increasing the number of CAF members it has stationed in Latvia for “Operation REASSURANCE” over the next several years.

Canada currently has around 800 CAF troops stationed in Latvia for the operation, but that number will soon go up to 2,200, the Prime Minister’s Office said on July 10.

Given the Canadian military’s current recruitment and retention problems, reporters asked Ms. Anand where the additional CAF troops will be taken from to be stationed in Latvia.

“We will be rotating troops through Latvia,” she replied, adding, “At the same time we’re very much focused on recruitment, retention, and overall reconstitution of the Canadian Armed Forces.”