This sounds like a bad Belgian joke. The country has just received the first examples of its new F-35 fighter jets ordered in 2018. The problem: its pilots will not be able to use them for training, at least not in Belgium.
Therefore, the government is holding talks with other countries to be able to use their airspace to carry out its training operations. Italy, the Netherlands, Norway are mentioned, but also the airspace over the North Sea. It will also involve the development of simulator training.
A device is missing
In reality, the narrowness of Belgian airspace poses chronic problems for the country’s aviation; The situation is the same for training with the F-16. However, this situation makes people happy: residents who live near air bases, who are exposed to noise pollution from aircraft and who were worried about the arrival of the F-35s, which are noisier than the F-16s.
Another controversy surrounding these new fighters is the absence of one of the devices that were to be delivered along with three others on October 13. The plane was stranded on the Portuguese island of Terceira, in the Azores archipelago. And it’s still there. The new device appears to suffer from a technical problem but the mystery remains.
Source: BFM TV
