The Netherlands Air Force Decommissions F-16 Fighter Jets

The Netherlands Ministry of Defense officially decommissioned F-16 fighter aircraft from its inventory.

"Today, the Ministry of Defense officially said goodbye to the legendary aircraft ," the ministry said in a statement.

The first of 213 F-16s purchased by the Netherlands arrived at the air force base on June 6, 1979. In 1979, the F-16 Fighting Falcon replaced the aging F-104 Starfighter and later the NF-5. Now the latest F-35 fighters are replacing the F-16.

44 accidents in 45 years

Things have not always gone well in the Netherlands Air Force. The first F-16 crashed on March 10, 1980. Then followed another 44 air incidents involving fighters of this type. Some cars could still be repaired, but 36 were total losses . In total, the air force lost 15 F-16 pilots. The last aircraft was written off by the air force on 21 September 2006. Since then, things have been going well in that regard. Pilots returned safely from their training flights and missions.

EIghteen F-16 have been committed to Urkaine and are currently being used for pilot training in Bulgaria

The F-16 has proven its value at home and abroad. In the Netherlands, for example, 2 of these aircraft were on standby numerous times to monitor the airspace of Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The so-called Quick Reaction Alert also had to take action repeatedly because Russian bombers approached or entered Dutch airspace. Another example is the deployment for dike monitoring. Here, F-16s with infrared equipment mapped whether dikes were saturated with water and therefore weakened.