Ukraine to receive additional F-16s from Denmark by year-end

Ukraine is poised to receive an additional batch of F-16 fighter jets from Denmark by the end of 2024.

The precise timing and quantity of new deliveries are being kept confidential for operational security reasons, Caliber.Az reports, citing Danish media.

Danish Defence Minister Troels Lund Poulsen made the announcement, revealing that Denmark's commitment includes a total of 19 F-16s.

Meanwhile, the first aircraft were delivered to Ukraine in August 2024.

“Another F-16 would be delivered in the latter half of the year,” Poulsen affirmed.

Ukraine has received its first American-made F-16 fighter jets on August 4, 2024.

Around 65 F-16s have been pledged by NATO countries since US President Joe Biden first authorised willing European allies to send them to Ukraine in August 2023.

The F-16 was introduced in 1978. Many Western militaries are in the process of retiring the ageing fighters, replacing them with the US-made F-35, introduced in 2015.

Ukraine's F-16s will work alongside a limited number of Western-supplied surface-to-air missile systems such as Patriot and Nasams which are already on the ground.

With their capacity to carry rockets, bombs and missiles, F-16s should in theory allow the air force to carry out more strikes deep inside occupied territory, and possibly on targets close to the border inside Russia.