By Mike Stone
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a first, two Ukrainian pilots are in Arizona to fly flight simulators and be evaluated by the U.S. military, an American defense official said Saturday, as Washington remains mute on whether it will send fighter jets or sophisticated remotely piloted drones to Kyiv.
The U.S. and 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.
“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 defense official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Arizona “familiarization event” will facilitate dialogue between Ukrainian and U.S. personnel and provide an opportunity to observe how the U.S. Air Force operates, the defense official said.
While it is the first event of its kind, there is an ongoing robust military-to-military dialogue with Ukraine. Other allies have also conducted similar events in the past, the official said.
The official did not say how long the Ukrainians had been in the Southwestern state.
The official said there were no updates regarding F-16 fighter jet pledges to Ukraine.
The U.S. has not begun any F-16 training of Ukrainians, Colin Kahl, under secretary of defense for policy, told members of the House of Representatives on Tuesday.
Training on military equipment, both for its use and maintenance, has been a leading indicator of a potential transfer.
Kahl made the remarks during a hearing focused on oversight of the nearly $32 billion in military aid President Joe Biden’s administration has provided to Ukraine since Russia’s invasion a year ago, including drones, long-range artillery systems, and air defense capabilities.
The Pentagon’s assessment for even the most expeditious delivery of F-16s and concurrent training is 18 months, “so you don’t actually save yourself time by starting the training early,” Kahl told the panel.
Complicating matters is that there is no clear fleet that Ukraine could get, according to Kahl. “They could end up getting British Tornados or (Swedish) Gripens or (French) Mirage aircraft, so you wouldn’t want to train them on F-16s,” he said.
NBC News reported on the pilot’s presence in Arizona earlier Saturday.
(This story has been refiled to fix the spelling of Kyiv in paragraph 1)
(Reporting by Mike Stone in Washington; editing by Jonathan Oatis)
