Royal Netherlands Air Force force will say goodbye to all of its F-16 fighter jets from Voelkel Air Force Base on Friday. After 45 years of use, they will be replaced. At least six aircraft will make a final, farewell lap over the Netherlands in formation. Various locations that are somehow connected to the fighters will be circled from the air, a spokesman said.
This was reported by the National News Agency of the Netherlands ANP, quoted by BTA.
The farewell flight will start around 1:30 p.m. from the airport near the city of Breda and will last for about two hours. From the Volkel base, the formation will pass by the old Twente air base, through Leeuwarden and to the command center New Milligen. The fighters will then pass through Susterberg, where the pilots' medical examinations are carried out, and continue to The Hague, where the Ministry of Defense is located. The planes, which will fly at a height of at least 400 meters, will also be able to be observed from Gilze, Reijen and Eindhoven.
The planes have been in service since 1979 and, according to the Air Force, are outdated and increasingly expensive to maintain. They will be replaced by the newer F-35s. Ukraine will receive 24 of the old F-16s, and another 18 will go to a training center in Romania. It is not known if there are already combat aircraft in Ukraine, and due to the sensitivity of this information, nothing has been shared so far.