They arrived in France at the beginning of April. The first eleven Ukrainian fighter pilot apprentices have taken up residence in a base in the south-west of France. For security reasons, the location of this training is kept secret, and speaking to them is also prohibited, but for the first time a few journalists were authorized to meet these Ukrainian pilots.
The Alpha Jet engines roar on the tarmac, over which hangs the smell of burnt gum and kerosene. One after the other, the Alpha Jet two-seaters emerge from their cell to enter the Taxiway… The helmet of a student pilot emerges from the cockpit. The student occupies the front seat, behind him, a French instructor, it is also this experienced pilot who walks around the plane before takeoff: “It allows him to be more focused on his mission and I will be the captain, so I am the one who takes into account the aircraft and I check that everything is compliant and up to standards for the flight. »
These eleven Ukrainian pilots are not novices. In Ukraine, they had already flown around a hundred hours on a training plane. Then, they followed initial training in Great Britain, to the standard NATOin particular to familiarize themselves with English, the language used in Western cockpits… From now on, they are entering the hard part, on Alpha Jet, with training three times faster than normal, it is a first, says Franz, an air force instructor: “ It’s a first to train fighter pilots from a country at war, yes. Training fighter pilots, the work remains exactly the same. We will have become aware, I think, of the speed when they have left. In fact, there, we will realize the work done and ultimately how little time it lasted. »
Less than six months before joining a transformation squadron and switching to F-16 aircraft. In the meantime, we must get to the essentials, and ignore a few chapters such as solo flights and in-flight refueling.
We must focus on the core business. Distance from the objective, coordinates, altitude, speed… A briefing is underway in the operations room with an instructor for each pilot. Today’s mission: simulated bombing of a munitions stockpile. A basic mission, says Benjamin, instructor: “We have a trainee who is almost halfway through his training, and after having carried out quite a few standard low altitude missions, that is to say really navigation missions by learning not to get lost, we now switches to a more tactical formation. A relatively simple tactical situation with a materialized enemy/friendly line, ground/air defense sites, things of that type. And so we train them little by little, in increasingly complex situations to bring them to the level which will therefore be that of carrying out this same type of mission, but on an F-16 type aircraft. »
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Twenty-six pilots in total will be trained in France
Forty F-16 aircraft have been transferred to Ukraine, so these eleven pilots in training will be the backbone of the new Ukrainian air force.
“ They are very young pilots “, emphasizes instructor Benjamin, “ They are all between 21 and 23 years old. They are real sponges, particularly motivated too, so they are very attentive. They want it. We adapt their training, as you can see, we almost only have very experienced instructors. We all have approximately 20 years of experience as fighter pilots in our armed forces. But it remains a challenge that we take on together with our Ukrainian trainees, whom we assist enormously. We support them in their progression process. And so we really put this veneer on Western methods. The basis is learning to be independent, which is what we are trying to help them discover here. The Russian methods, to which Ukrainian pilots were accustomed until then, are not very autonomous; these Russian methods are largely based on information from the ground. In Western methods, pilots rely less on ground control and are much more autonomous “.
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Autonomy, the key word of piloting
Autonomy requires mastering the basics of piloting and even if the training takes place in accelerated mode, the fundamentals are taught with rigor, insists instructor Franz, “ Here, we will give them all the basics, namely applying procedures, operating in a tactical situation, knowing how to react when we have a breakdown, knowing how to react in the face of bad weather. The idea is that they have learned as much as possible to have only specific F-16s or Mirages when they are in a transformation squadron, because subsequently, they will go on a two-seater plane like here with always have a rear class instructor while you learn how to master this new aircraft. So here they will have all the basics and the habit of speaking with an instructor who is behind, who has all the controls like in a driving school. »
There France will train 26 pilots in total and this first promotion should experience its baptism of fire next fall. The trainees will therefore succeed one another on this basis. Only French base to have an Alpha Jet squadron. Until 2019, Belgian and also French pilots came to train there. The squadron was to be disbanded, the war in Ukraine disrupted the schedule. The base proved to be the most suitable tool for training Ukrainian pilots, explains instructor Benjamin: “ Over the past 20 years, we have trained French and Belgian fighter pilots. For French pilots, some were sent on Mirage 2000. Belgian pilots were sent on F-16. The training was strictly the same. In the end, the NATO framework in which we operate as fighter pilots is the same. Whatever nationality you fly on a French machine, it will always be Western-style. If it is on an F-16, the operation will be essentially the same, that is to say the tactical methods applied will be exactly the same. So our training is completely versatile and covers the entire spectrum of aircraft on which our trainees will be likely to fly. »
After their passage in France, the Ukrainian trainee pilots will therefore be able to switch, without difficulty, either to the F-16 or to the Mirage 2000-5, aircraft soon to be sold by France. Until then, the learning continues at a hellish pace, long days and little rest and necessarily solid links are formed with the French instructors, but we don’t talk about the war, says Franz, officer of the Air Force : “ We rarely mention the Ukrainian conflict because I think they don’t need to be reminded of it on a daily basis, so we remain professional, in education. We tell them that’s it, you have to know how to do it on the F-16. It works like that, so it’s good to learn this procedure right away, et cetera. So, we nevertheless talk about how to fight, how to wage war. They are given simulated goals. We then tell them today, we are going to take this objective, we are going to say that it is an ammunition depot and the goal is to destroy it, so we have allusions to war. But we don’t talk about the conflict on a daily basis. It must be hard enough for them. So we don’t talk about that with them. »
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