An American F-16 Fighting Falcon flies over England on April 15, 2025. The Defense Department awarded a $235 million multiyear contract to a Belgian company for maintenance on Ukraine’s fleet of the U.S.-made fighter jet. (Zachary Jakel/U.S. Air Force)
The Pentagon has given its blessing to an engine and depot-level maintenance contract covering the Ukrainian F-16 fleet for the next three years.
The U.S. commitment to help Ukraine keep dozens of its Western combat jets in the air comes ahead of a new round of peace negotiations aimed at ending the Russia-Ukraine war, which is on the verge of heading into its fourth year.
Belgium’s Sabena Aerospace Engineering was awarded the more than $235 million contract for work to be performed at the company’s facility near Brussels, the Defense Department said in a statement Thursday.
The contract approved by the Pentagon also covers labor and materials. The work is expected to be completed by Jan. 28, 2029, the Pentagon said.
A recent report from the Washington-based Center for European Policy Analysis called the F-16s “Ukraine’s best battlefield interdiction assets.”
But the aircraft have mainly been used to shoot down Russian cruise missiles because of Ukraine’s lack of precision bombs, the report said.
Ukraine received its first batch of U.S.-made F-16s in August of 2024 from European allies.
The latest U.S.-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine are expected to take place in the United Arab Emirates on Wednesday and Thursday, The Associated Press reported.
