Free Republic

There is no need for any more fighter pilots so current trainees have had their training programmes halted Twelve young Danes, who were due to be sent to the US to train as fighter pilots, have had their dreams taken away following a political decision. The ruling follows an agreement in parliament to reduce the number of operational F-16 fighter pilots from 48 to 30. Lars Skjoldan, a communication officer with Tactical Air Command, told Berlingske Tidende newspaper that the decision had not been taken lightly. ‘The Air Force really regrets the decision and realizes that the dreams of these...

Denmark has decided to wait, until 2014, to decide what to replace its elderly F-16 fleet with. Meanwhile, 18 of the F-16s will be retired. But the other 30 will be refurbished so that they can continue to operate for the rest of the decade. Denmark had wanted to replace the F-16s with F-35s. But the F-35 keeps getting delayed (now more than two years behind schedule), and is becoming more expensive (nearly a hundred percent over budget). The Danish F-35 buy is no longer a sure thing. The delays have lots of users concerned. The U.S. Navy has been...