Denmark, Netherlands, US spearhead creation of future Ukraine air force

COPENHAGEN - Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States will spearhead a new international coalition to help Ukraine establish

a future air force based on F-16 fighter jets,

the Danish Ministry of Defence said on Wednesday.

The coalition aims to build infrastructure around F-16s, including maintenance facilities to support the operation of the planes, the ministry said in a statement.

Denmark and the Netherlands were the first two countries to commit to donating F-16 jets to Ukraine, whose current air force has a fleet of ageing Soviet-era fighter jets,

in its war with Russia.

“This is a natural move following the leading role Denmark already has in relation to the military support for Ukraine and especially in relation to the donation of F-16 fighter jets,” Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said.

Denmark expects to deliver the first six of 19 F-16s to Ukraine in March or April next year, he told broadcaster TV2 on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Germany and nine other countries on Wednesday took the next step in their efforts to jointly purchase air defence systems such as Patriot, IRIS-T and Arrow 3 as Nato allies scramble to plug gaps created by Russia’s war on Ukraine.

On the sidelines of a defence ministers’ meeting at Nato’s Brussels headquarters, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Hungary, Lithuania and the Netherlands signed an agreement that will build the legal foundation necessary for purchases.

Together with Germany, Slovenia and Latvia, who signed up earlier, they make up a group of 10 countries that aims to spearhead joint procurement within the wider German-led, 19-nation European Sky Shield Initiative.

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said he expected the first deals to be struck within three to four months.

Ground-based air defence systems such as Raytheon’s Patriot or IRIS-T, which is produced by German arms maker Diehl, are built to intercept incoming missiles.

After the Cold War, many Nato allies scaled down the number of air defence units to reflect their assessment that they faced only a limited missile threat, from countries such as Iran.

This perception changed drastically with Russia’s invasion last year of Ukraine, which sent Nato allies scrambling to tackle air defence shortfalls while at the same time supplying Kyiv with the coveted systems.

Set up one year ago, the European Sky Shield Initiative groups 19 nations including Britain, the Baltic states and several eastern European countries who aim to buy air defences mainly off the shelf instead of developing new systems, to cut down on procurement times.

With the move, Germany upset France, which favours the development of European systems and has declined to join the initiative. France has said the initiative creates new dependencies on the countries and companies that make the defence systems.

REUTERS