Air Force Is 75% Staffed With Pilots, Says Deputy Commander

(MENAFN- UkrinForm) According to Ukrinform, Colonel Yurii Cherevashchenko, deputy commander of the Ukrainian Air Force for air defense, made this statement during a meeting of the Temporary Investigative Commission.

“There is no widespread understaffing at the moment. We have made significant efforts to prevent pilots from being transferred to other branches of the Armed Forces. Currently, staffing levels are about 75%,” he said.

At the same time, Cherevashchenko noted that technological solutions are currently the main bottleneck for air defense. According to him, once the technological issue is resolved, the next constraints may be scaling up operations and the number of trained pilots.

“We will be able to retrain some of our current pilots to operate jet interceptor drones. In addition, we have a pool of former pilots who can also be enlisted,” added the deputy commander.

Thus, according to Cherevashchenko, there is a reserve for increasing the number of pilots. At the same time, the Air Force has other options for expanding its personnel, but does not currently plan to disclose them publicly.

Read also: ADF neutralizes 172 Russian drones used to attack Ukraine overnight

As reported by Ukrinform, President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine is preparing new contracts for air defense systems and missiles for air defense and is calling on partners to provide more anti-ballistic defense capabilities to protect infrastructure.

Photo: screenshot from video

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