The friction follows reports that more than half of the aircraft are in "maintenance limbo," which could exhaust the combat-ready fleet by year's end. Maintenance for phase inspections in Belgium can take as long as 40 weeks, compared to 2 to 6 weeks in the U.S., despite a $235.5 million contract awarded to Sabena Aerospace Engineering. The foreign ministry noted that sustainment is challenged by the fact that components for early F-16 variants are no longer in production and are increasingly difficult to source.
Wednesday, October 21, 2026
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Ukraine Denies 50% of its F-16 Fleet Is Grounded for Repairs
War19 days ago
Kyiv has claimed that the delivery of overhauled fighter jets is accelerating just as the winter combat season approaches. The Ukrainian foreign ministry rejected assertions of catastrophically low aircraft availability and excessively long maintenance turnarounds as "simply false," insisting that turnaround times are decreasing. This official pushback arrives as President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told European officials that about half of the F-16 fleet has been stuck in Europe for repairs and called for that work to be moved into Ukraine to return jets to the air faster.
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