The formal delivery of two F-16 Block 70 fighters yesterday puts Slovakia’s air force back in business for the first time since 2022.
In that year, the Slovakian Air Force (SAF) retired its Russian-built MiG-29 fighters due to a lack of spares and debated the prospect of transferring them to Ukraine to aid the latter’s war effort. The transfer of the 13 MiG’s operated by the SAF went forward in early 2023 and was completed last April.
It left the small eastern European country without air defense aircraft, its only fast jets being a small cadre of Czech L-39 trainers. To cover its airspace, Slovakia worked out a deal with the Czech Republic and Poland to have their air forces take on air policing over its territory. The Czech-Polish patrols began in September 2022 and were planned to last until the end of 2023.
But delays in delivering the 14 F-16 Block 70 fighters ordered by Slovakia in late 2018 (for $1.8 billion) which Lockheed Martin attributed to the Pandemic have forced Slovakia to extend the air policing arrangement with its neighbors.
However, the first two jets (a single seat Block 70 rolled out in September of last year and the two-seat aircraft pictured above) were officially handed over on Wednesday, making Slovakia the first European country to receive the latest version of the F-16. According to Lockheed, they will depart for Slovakia with the first group of jets, known as a “ferry cell”, in mid-2024.
I queried a Lockheed Martin spokesperson as to how many F-16s the ferry cell will include but an answer via email has yet to be provided. Whether the number is two, four, six or more, Slovakian Air Force pilots should be available to fly them to Eastern Europe.
SAF pilots began training in the U.S. in 2019. The first four Slovakian pilots and successive tranches have undergone training with 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard at Morris Air Guard Base in Tucson. At the time, Slovakia announced its intention to train a total of 22 F-16 pilots.
The Slovakian Ministry of Defense has not offered a figure for how many have completed flight training thus far although a report in the Slovakian press noted that 16 pilots were in the U.S. as of October 2021. Given an anticipated two-to-four year training cycle for the aircrews, most of the prospective SAF F-16 pilots have likely completed training or will be nearly done by the time the new Block 70 jets leave for Slovakia.
Ironically, a number of the Slovakian pilots have likely trained in the same spaces as the Ukrainians now undergoing F-16 transition training at the 162nd Wing. There is even the possibility that one or two of the Ukrainians may have flown a donated Slovakian MiG-29.
Lockheed Martin will continue deliveries of the balance of F-16s for Slovakia through 2025. Once they begin operating domestically, the airplanes will enable NATO-member Slovakia to integrate fully with the Alliance’s other member air forces and the 1,500-strong NATO battlegroup formed in Slovakia in 2023 which includes participation from Germany, Poland and other NATO states.
The revival of the SAF’s air defense and strike capabilities will place another capable air component between Russia and greater Europe. With the F-16 Block 70, the Slovakian Air Force will gain aircraft with Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars (Northrop Grumman’s advanced APG-83), sensor-fused in-cockpit tactical displays and multi-sensor targeting data from Lockheed Martin’s Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod and Legion-ES IRST system.
The SAF will also gain commonality with other European F-16 operators (Poland, Romania, Norway, Denmark, Bulgaria and more) and Block 70 users worldwide. Lockheed says it has a production backlog of 135 Block 70s with orders from six countries (including Taiwan) which is set to grow to 143 with a pending agreement with Bulgaria for eight of the jets expected to be finalized in the near future.
Lockheed Martin likes to point out that over 3,100 F-16s are presently operating in 25 countries. They include Israel whose F-16I “Soufas” (modified Block 50/52s) have been heavily-tasked against Hamas and Hezbollah targets since October.
The jump in capability that the 14 Block 70 F-16s will provide over the aging MiG-29s that Slovakia previously operated is undeniable and the training that SAF aircrews have received in Arizona undoubtedly adds to its overall professionalism and readiness.
The wait for the new F-16s may have been longer than desired but they will make the Slovakian Air Force a force in the region.
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