The NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe named three main issues in preparing Ukrainian pilots for flights on the F-16

The Soviet “school”, lack of English proficiency, and personnel shortages: NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe identified the challenges in training Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.

Christopher Cavoli’s statements at a hearing in Congress were reported by Voice of America:

“It’s particularly difficult to transition from old Soviet-era aircraft, which Ukrainian pilots flew, serviced, and maintained, to a modern fourth-generation aircraft like the F-16.”

“An important aspect of this, believe it or not, is English language proficiency and its study. If all manuals, instructions, and buttons are in English, you must at least know enough English for that.”

“The second step is determining whether the pilot has sufficient basic training. If a person is already an experienced pilot, they transition directly to the F-16. This poses certain difficulties because these aircraft are very different from those they flew in the Ukrainian Air Force. Otherwise, the individual undergoes basic flight training. We have several aviators currently undergoing basic flight training in several countries, after which they will transition to the F-16.”

“The limiting factor in the number of pilots we are currently training is the availability of Ukrainian pilots. Ukrainians have carefully calculated how many pilots they can send while maintaining a decent level of combat readiness within Ukraine. And this is what actually determines the actual size of the training or the number of pilots in the pipeline.”