Three Swedish Armed Forces Gripens participated in a long range, long duration Bomber Task Force mission over Sweden, May 20, 2020. (Courtesy photo by the Swedish Armed Forces)
ATLANTA — While Sweden stands ready to send its Gripen fighters to Ukraine, the head of a key ally’s military said that move “doesn’t make sense for me,” at least not yet.
“In the long term, yes, [but] I think we have to avoid [giving] too many systems to Ukraine, because they have a shortage of pilots,” Chief of Defence of the Netherlands Gen. Onno Eichelsheim told Breaking Defense. “So you have to avoid that you have more systems than pilots. Somewhere in the balance, you have to look at what capabilities are needed at this moment.”
In July the Netherlands, Denmark and the US announced they were in the process of donating F-16s from Dutch and Danish stocks to Ukraine. The US has flatly rejected calls to give current American systems, but agreed to allow other nations to provide their US-made jets.
Eichelsheim, speaking on the sidelines of the Halifax International Security Forum last weekend, said that since F-16s are already available, introducing “French fighters and Swedish fighters … doesn’t make sense for me.” (French President Emmanuel Macron said in June that Paris planned to send some of its Mirages to Ukraine as well.)
Eichelsheim said it’s better to “focus” on the capabilities the Ukrainians currently have. “So get them ready on these aircrafts, and provide them with the weapons, the money, the logistics, the parts that are available around the world to get these aircraft up and running continuously.”
The Dutch official’s comments clarify remarks from Swedish Defense Minister Pål Jonson, who said last week that Stockholm was ready and willing to donate Gripens to Ukraine but had been advised not to.
“The donation of the Gripens is not in the hands of ourselves,” Jonson said, suggesting at the time that other actors in the international coalition dedicated to Ukraine’s air force, predominantly Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States, wanted to make sure Ukraine is settled with the F-16 before introducing other complex technologies into the ecosystem.
“They have advised us to wait to donate the Gripen until it goes further with the F-16 as well,” Jonson said.
Deliveries of the fourth-generation aircraft, dating back to July, represent a major potential uplift in capability for Ukraine, which has been largely relying on Soviet-era MiG-29 and Su-27 combat jets to counter Russia’s invasion, though officials and experts have said it won’t be a silver bullet.
Eichelsheim said Kyiv’s armed forces have been “successful in using the aircraft, and they are actually quite successful in maintaining them at this moment.”
“But we also see that they use a lot of spare parts, so we have to work on the spare parts element together with the nations to provide them with the right amount to keep the aircrafts up and running,” he said. Earlier this month Reuters reported the White House had lifted a de facto ban on American contractors working in Ukraine in a move that could give a boost to the complex maintenance of the F-16.
In the meantime, Eichelsheim said Ukrainian pilots “do quite well” with the F-16, “perhaps even better than we anticipated.
“They learn very fast how to operate the aircraft and how to operate the new weapon systems that they are getting on the aircraft,” he added. “So, and that’s all I can say, actually, about it.”
Tim Martin contributed to this report.
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