Norway has received permission from the United States to transfer 22 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine, as well as the necessary fighter jet maintenance equipment, Nettavisen reports.
It is specified that this is a batch of 65 fighters, which will be delivered jointly by Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands with the permission of the United States.
Nettavisen claims that Norway currently has 22 operational F-16s. Some of them may be inoperable and will be used for disassembly for spare parts. Only 12 aircraft out of the entire batch will be operational. The condition of the remaining ten is unknown.
The portal also does not specify when Norway will hand over the fighter jets to Ukraine.
It was announced in August 2023 that Norway would hand over its F-16s to Kyiv, but the number of jets was not specified at the time. NRK's sources spoke of 5-10 aircraft.
The Netherlands and Denmark were the first to agree to supply F-16s to Ukraine. They were soon joined by the US and Lithuania.
Denmark, the Netherlands and the US are going to deliver the first ten F-16s to Ukraine in 2024. However, deliveries are planned to begin only after Ukrainian pilots have completed their training.