Ukrainian pilots visit Arizona to train on flight simulators

Two Ukrainian pilots are in Arizona to fly flight simulators and be evaluated by the US military, two US officials said on March 4, as Washington remains mute on whether it will send fighter jets or sophisticated remotely piloted drones to Kyiv.

The US and its allies have been flooding Ukraine with weapons from Javelin missiles to HIMARS rocket launchers, but sophisticated jets and the largest armed drones have not been pledged to Ukraine by Western allies.

The Arizona “familiarization event” is a first and will facilitate dialogue between Ukrainian and US personnel and provide an opportunity to observe how the US Air Force operates, a US defence official said, speaking on condition of anonymity, Al Arabiya reports.

“This event allows us to better help Ukrainian pilots become more effective pilots and better advise them on how to develop their own capabilities,” the defence official said.

“The program involves watching how Ukrainian pilots conduct their mission planning and execution in flight simulators in order to determine how we can better advise the Ukrainian Air Force on how to use capabilities they have,” an administration official said on condition of anonymity.

Other allies have also conducted similar events in the past, the defence official said. The defence official did not say how long the Ukrainians had been in the Southwestern state.

The officials said there were no updates regarding F-16 fighter jet pledges to Ukraine.