The first F-16 (American-made) fighter jets, which the Netherlands is donating to Ukraine, will arrive at a training center in Romania within two weeks, Acting Prime Minister of the Netherlands Mark Rutte said on Monday.

The Ukrainians want the F-16 fighters to arrive as soon as possiblePhoto: Petras Malukas / AFP / Profimedia Images

“I expect Patriot missiles to be delivered soon to help Ukraine this winter. And the same speed applies to the F-16,” Rutte said during a video conference with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky, which was published on X (Twitter).

“The first (F-16s) will be sent to the training center in Romania in the next two weeks, so that day we can prepare for the continuation of training,” Mark Rutte said.

Denmark, Norway and Belgium have also announced that they will provide Ukraine with F-16s.

  • Read also: Why F-16 fighters are not a “silver bullet” for Ukraine in the war with Russia

F-16, the most popular fighter in the world

The F-16 is a multi-role aircraft capable of performing air defense missions, strike missions against land and sea targets in all weather conditions, day and night, as well as aerial reconnaissance missions.

The US Air Force calls the F-16, which first entered service in the 1970s, a “relatively inexpensive, highly effective weapon system.”

Thousands of aircraft were built over the decades and hundreds of aircraft were exported around the world.

Nearly 2,200 F-16s are currently in service worldwide, making it the most popular fighter jet on the planet, accounting for 15 percent of the world’s fleet, according to the director of Air Force Flight Global.

Are F-16 Expectations Too High?

Serhii Golubtsov, commander of the Ukrainian Air Force, said in the spring that Ukraine desperately needs F-16 fighter jets, which, he said, are “four to five times” more effective than the Soviet-era ones currently in use in Ukraine.

But a pilot who still flies an F-16 fighter jet told CNN that Ukrainians’ expectations may actually be too high.

“To your question about whether the F-16 will matter. He won’t do it,” the pilot said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the subject.

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