KIEV. Oct 25 (Interfax-AVN) - The Ukrainian Air Force needs additional 20,000t of fuel every month to hold regular combat training, a source in the Defence Ministry told Interfax-Military News Agency on Thursday.
Flight skills of the Air Force's personnel are getting worse, the source told Interfax-Military News Agency. The training of young pilots is in miserable condition.
According to the source, Air Force units have managed to train 176 pilots this year. A fighter aviation pilot flies an average of five to seven hours a year, while in the U.S. a pilot flies for 240 hours and in Western Europe for 160 hours.
The lack of fuel motivated the ministry leadership's decision to retrain of graduates from the Kharkov Air Force Institute who failed to complete the fighter pilot education due to the problem. The majority of those graduates were appointed to posts in the ground services.