Romania opens F-16 pilot training hub for NATO allies, Ukraine.

Red, a fighter pilot from Romania with hundreds of flight hours and many air policing operations under his belt on the NATO state’s now-retired fleet of MIG21 LanceR fighters, will take to the skies in December in a Lockheed Martin F-16.

He and six other Romanian pilots were the first students at a nearby F-16 training facility funded by the NATO military alliance on Monday. This hub will be open to all friends and partners, including Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.

Regarding the switch to flying F-16s, the 32-year-old pilot, who went only by his pilot call sign Red, said, “I am a little nervous, but I expect the nerves to be constructive.”

“At the end of the day, it is a fighter jet, and we have been flying fighter jets.”

Romania and Ukraine have a shared border of 650 kilometers (400 miles), and because of Moscow’s persistent attacks on Ukrainian ports across the Danube, Romania has witnessed the battle on its borders.

It decided last year to purchase 32 used F-16 fighter planes from Norway, joining the 17 it had already purchased from Portugal since 2016. Lockheed Martin Corp., LMT.N., manufactures the aircraft.

After 2030, it also intends to spend $6.5 billion to purchase 32 F-35 combat fighters of the newest generation.

The European F-16 Training Center (EFTC) is housed in a military air base in Romania, close to the town of Fetesti in the southeast. Lockheed Martin and its contractors provide training support for the F-16 aircraft, which the Netherlands offers.

Dutch Colonel Olivier Bok said the center may begin training Ukrainian pilots as early as next year.

“We also intend to train Ukrainian pilots,” Bok said, adding that the exact date was still pending agreement with Romanian authorities. “I would say at the beginning of next year,” he said.

As soon as pilot training was finished, the United States approved in August the deployment of F-16 fighter planes from Denmark and the Netherlands to Ukraine to fend off a Russian invasion. Ukraine has aggressively pursued F-16 fighter fighters manufactured in the United States to confront Russian air dominance.

“I see the need for them to get the F-16s,” Bok said. While Denmark and the United States were already providing training for select Ukrainian pilots, Bok stated that Romania was “closer to home and more or less the same scene.”

Attending the hub’s unveiling, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren responded that it depends on Ukrainian preparedness when asked when the country would be sending F-16s to that country.

“They have to have trained pilots, they have to have maintenance personnel, they have to have the infrastructure in place, and we also have to coordinate with our partner and with the U.S. because it is an American capability.”