- Ukraine will be getting its second Western jet type, as France plans to send Mirages.
- France also said it was training Ukrainian pilots.
- That’s a big benefit, experts said, as the F-16 training program keeps being delayed.
France’s plan for getting Ukraine new Western fighter jets could help it skirt a big issue facing the F-16 program.
France is giving Ukraine Mirage jets, and once they arrive, they will be the second Western aircraft type that Ukraine has received, after the American-made F-16, since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Part of France’s pledge includes a promise to train Ukrainian pilots on the jets, which is good news for Ukraine given the persistent delays in Western programs designed to train its pilots on F-16s.
France’s armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecornu, said the jets would be equipped for the fight in Ukraine, “but most important of all is the training of pilots and mechanics, which continues in Nancy.”
Retired US Army Maj. Gen. Gordon “Skip” Davis, who served as NATO’s deputy assistant secretary-general for its defense-investment division, told Business Insider that “the fact that France is willing to provide both the jets and train the pilots, that’s great. That’s key.”
F-16 training struggles
Ukrainian pilots are being trained in the US, Denmark, and Romania on Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-16s. But the new program has faced setbacks. Politico reported in June that Ukraine’s allies did not have the number of training spaces that Ukraine wanted for its pilots.
And to further complicate things, another delay in getting more trained pilots in the air seems to have arisen.
The Wall Street Journal reported last month that the US is shifting its training to younger, less-experienced cadets, largely because experienced pilots typically don’t have the necessary English skills to do the training. That decision could delay the arrival of more F-16s on the battlefield by months, the report said.
Ukraine has only received 10 F-16s so far, according to Ukrainian outlet Pravda, and it has already lost at least one. So few aircraft are helpful for augmenting Ukrainian air defenses, but there’s not enough to make a substantial impact.
France’s offer to train pilots for a different jet type, even if it is only for a small number of aircraft, is helpful, experts explained to BI.
Gordon said it’s a “big deal” that France is providing training “because training is a bit of a bottleneck for the F-16s.”
Michael Bohnert, an air warfare expert at the RAND Corporation, said that when it comes to Ukraine getting Mirage aircraft, “a big advantage” is that “the French have their training pipeline, so they’re able to run an independent set of training relative to what’s happening in the US or elsewhere.”
George Barros, a warfare expert at the Institute for the Study of War, said that the US has “a big training bottleneck when it comes to getting pilots qualified.”
“Any sort of augmentation and training bandwidth that partners and allies can provide to help alleviate that critical rate determiner is going to really help expedite Ukraine’s ability to become proficient in operating in that air domain,” he said.
That’s”not to undersell the importance of the actual hardware and equipment itself,” Barros said, “but no one really talks about training.” He explained that “you could have as many airframes as you want, but if you don’t have the qualified pilots who know how to do it correctly, then you don’t have a capability.”
Ukraine’s future
Lecornu said in October that his country intends to send Mirage 2000 jets manufactured by Dassault Aviation in the first half of 2025. But the jets will not arrive in large numbers. French newspaper La Tribune reported that only three will be delivered in the first quarter of next year.
France has not officially confirmed how many will arrive in the first tranche or how many it will send in total. It is also unclear when pilots will complete their training and Mirage aircraft will be able to join Ukrine’s F-16s in the air.
But having a new jet to fly alongside the F-16s and its Soviet-designed aircraft isn’t without its challenges.
“It would be ideal if they would just operate one thing, but now they have to operate three things,” Tim Robinson, a military aviation specialist at the UK’s Royal Aeronautical Society, said.
“Ideally, you don’t have to support three different types of fixed-wing aircraft,” he said. “But beggars can’t be choosers, and at the end of the day, more capability is better than no capability.”
Bohnert gave a similar assessment. “One problem is they’re just trying to stand up their F-16 infrastructure. So, adding another plane that is relatively different in its supply chain will pose some logistical challenges. But from a force perspective, it’s a positive improvement,” he said.
Ukraine has notably proven itself to be very adept at mixing combat technologies from many different partners, be it artillery, tanks, missiles, or aircraft.
The Mirage will be “added value” for Ukraine, Gordon said, though he said allies should have made the decision earlier so they could be flying and helping Ukraine now.
Ukraine definitely needs more jets. Even if all the F-16s the country has been promised arrive — the more than 85 jets promised by Norway, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark — that’s not enough to make a big difference, warfare experts say. Even Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said it’s not enough, saying the issues are the same ones it ran into with the Abrams tanks.
And the F-16, while a capable, combat-proven aircraft, is 50 years old. These aircraft are not peak warfighting capabilities, and they arrived long after Ukraine really needed them, giving Russia time to prepare for their arrival. More capability is welcomed.
The Mirages are good for Ukraine, Robinson said, and “obviously more of everything is great.”
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