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Russia removed nearly half of Soviet-era tanks from key military storage for deployment in Ukraine | Ukraine - Russia conflict war 2022 | analysis focus army defence military industry army

Russia removed approximately half of the tanks and armored vehicles from the Vagzhanovo military equipment storage facility located in eastern Siberia. Analysis of satellite imagery indicates a reduction of over 41% in the number of military vehicles present at the site since the onset of the...
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GrauGeist said:
The Air Force evaluation of the two Ukrainian pilots tested stateside back in January found them mastering the F-16 in weeks, not months.
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We have current and former combat pilots here on the forum. What say you? How fast can an experienced MIG or Sukhoi pilot reach effectiveness on a F-16?

There's also the need to recruit and train rookie fighter pilots to replace those lost and to cover the expanding fleet. So, we'll see Ukrainian pilots going straight from trainers to Vipers and/or Gripens.
 
Admiral Beez said:
We have current and former combat pilots here on the forum. What say you? How fast can an experienced MIG or Sukhoi pilot reach effectiveness on a F-16?

There's also the need to recruit and train rookie fighter pilots to replace those lost and to cover the expanding fleet. So, we'll see Ukrainian pilots going straight from trainers to Vipers and/or Gripens.
Click to expand...

I'm not a pilot, but I was at Carswell when the 301st TFW transitioned from F-4Es to F-16As. Forgive my quoting myself, but as I wrote much earlier in the thread:

Thumpalumpacus said:
As an example, it took the reserve 301st TFW at my base about eight months to transition from F-4Es to F-16As in 1990-91, and that was with a common language and units of measure, albeit with a vastly different and improved airframe. So there's no one easy answer to this question.
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Thumpalumpacus said:
I'm not a pilot, but I was at Carswell when the 301st TFW transitioned from F-4Es to F-16As. For give my quoting myself, but as I wrote much earlier in the thread:
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That was also with the luxury of time.
I think the USAF's assessment was 6 months from memory. They had a couple of Ukranian pilots for evaluation a while back.
 
gumbyk said:
That was also with the luxury of time.
I think the USAF's assessment was 6 months from memory. They had a couple of Ukranian pilots for evaluation a while back.
Click to expand...
But what of the rookie Ukrainian pilots without experience on MiG-29s or Su-27s? There needs to be a training pipeline of rookie Ukrainian fighter pilots. A war zone is no place for an introductory fighter pilot school, so Ukraine may want to send prospective pilots to other countries. How long does it take to convert a civilian youth into a fighter pilot?
 
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Admiral Beez said:
But what of the rookie Ukrainian pilots without experience on MiG-29s or Su-27s? There needs to be a training pipeline of rookie Ukrainian fighter pilots. A war zone is no place for an introductory fighter pilot school, so Ukraine may want to send prospective pilots to other countries. How long does it take to convert a civilian youth into a fighter pilot?
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Typically about 2 years. Longer if training courses are over-subscribed.

UPDATE: Actually, that's just the flying training aspects. You still need to get a new recruit through officer training. In the UK, that's 6 months. In the US, it's typically done as part of gaining a bachelor's degree which takes 4 years). I suspect Ukraine would follow the UK model with a dedicated Officer Training Course rather than the US approach.
 
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Admiral Beez said:
But what of the rookie Ukrainian pilots without experience on MiG-29s or Su-27s? There needs to be a training pipeline of rookie Ukrainian fighter pilots. A war zone is no place for an introductory fighter pilot school, so Ukraine may want to send prospective pilots to other countries. How long does it take to convert a civilian youth into a fighter pilot?
Click to expand...

"The other group of pilots are young, actually yesterday's graduates, who will go to the UK to take a longer program. But they will receive basic training: English language and light motor Western aircraft with a transition to fighter jets. This program will last longer, possibly up to 2 years, but this is the prospect that awaits us – we are re-equipping our Air Force with new types of equipment," Ihnat summarized.
 
Admiral Beez said:
We have current and former combat pilots here on the forum. What say you? How fast can an experienced MIG or Sukhoi pilot reach effectiveness on a F-16?

There's also the need to recruit and train rookie fighter pilots to replace those lost and to cover the expanding fleet. So, we'll see Ukrainian pilots going straight from trainers to Vipers and/or Gripens.
Click to expand...
When a F15 or F16 guy switches aircraft or comes back from a staff tour they go through whats called a "short course". Usually it's about 2.5 to 3 months long, and the guy graduates as a basic pilot in the jet but is not Mission Ready (MR). He then goes to his specific unit and gets top off training (mirroring what he just did in the school house) plus unit specific mission training. Specific training covers night attack, CAS, SEAD, etc., plus familiarity with the units tasked AOR. For instance while flying Eagles in Florida my AOR was Europe, and I knew all the departures, recoveries, safe routes, general lay down, local bases for my specific area (inside Europe).

When an A10 guy transitions to an F15 or F16 he gets almost the same course a brand new pilot gets (all the flying and 90% of the academics) compressed into 5 months instead of 6. He will fly at a slightly accelerated pace since he passes up on some academics.

Since I last wrote on this topic I have talked with a guy who May or may not have flown a Flanker, and been going through the flight manual on one to learn about the pilot interface with the machine. I've flown a MiG29 sim with a MiG IP on the console as well.

My guess is the average Ukrainian MiG or SU driver should probably go through a course much closer to the A10 guy than the new guy (almost all the flying / most of the academics). They should know how to do dogfighting (Basic Fighter Maneuvers or BFM) but the command and control aspect would require both the pilot and the Air Battle Managers / staff to get taught how to more fully utilize what the F16 will bring to the table. The F16 is set up for the Western pilot and structure, and using it like a MiG or SU will get you some increased lethality but not fully tap into it.

With the aircraft losses that the Ukraine has suffered I would think they have idle pilots who hopefully have been in training for months now and are actively flying with a host country to get them as much up on the step as possible. This is all opinion as I'm totally disconnected from that world except from here and Aviation Week.
 
Admiral Beez said:
But what of the rookie Ukrainian pilots without experience on MiG-29s or Su-27s? There needs to be a training pipeline of rookie Ukrainian fighter pilots. A war zone is no place for an introductory fighter pilot school, so Ukraine may want to send prospective pilots to other countries. How long does it take to convert a civilian youth into a fighter pilot?
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BuffNut answered most of this but I will piggyback on his reply.

ROTC cadets are in two flavors, 2 or 4 year programs. They do either a 4 week or a 6 week course and will graduate university as a O-1 / Ensign / 2LT.

Officer Candidate School (OCS) is usually about 2-3 months and will cover all the same stuff that the ROTC guys got. Graduates are as above.

Service Academies. 4 years and graduates are as above.

If selected to fly they will most likely go through a screening program of about 2-3 weeks. This changes regularly depending on budget and if a guy / gal has a private license.

Undergraduate Pilot Training for the USAF is about 12 months long and consists of generally flying two planes. First half is in the T-6 and the second half depends on how they track (Fighter Bomber guys T38, airlifters to C12 KingAir or T1 bizjet. Then 3 weeks of flying the AT38 like a wannabe fighter guy.

Then it's off to the fighter school house 6-8 months, land / water survival (2 months) and finally to your unit for about another month or two of top off training.

Total time about 2.5 to 3 years. Realize there are breaks in training as courses don't completely back up to one another.
 
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