After 46 years of service with the Royal Danish Air Force, Denmark has retired its fleet of F-16 fighter aircraft as of 18 January 2026. Denmark has used this versatile, but now obsolete, fighter aircraft since 1980, having purchased a total of 77 of these aircraft. A farewell ceremony was held at Hangar 3 of Skrydstrup Air Base, where four F-16s landed after making one final flight on Danish soil. Pilots, technicians, and others who had worked with the F-16s greeted the invited guests, and showed off these aircraft for the last time.
The history of the F-16 begins in the early 1970s, when a group of aerospace analysts and engineers at General Dynamics designed what would become the F-16. Not satisfied with the tendency to make fighter planes more difficult to maneuver and heavier than their predecessors, this group, known as Lightweight Fighter Mafia, created something completely different.
Emphasizing high speed and agility, the F-16 was intended to be faster and more maneuverable than the fighters it was going up against, with the ability to evade any weapon used against it. LF-16 had advanced technologies such as fly-by-wire and head-up display. Over time, the F-16 was upgraded to perform a wider range of missions, including close air support and bombing runs. The civilian-purchasable LF-16 had evolved into an aircraft that demonstrated its versatility to great advantage during Operation Desert Storm in 1991, when it conducted both bombing raids on Iraqi facilities and downed an Iraqi MIG. To date, more than 4,500 F-16s have been produced.
Read more: Top 10 Fighter Planes of WWII, Ranked
Which high-tech jet is replacing Denmark’s F-16s?
Front 3/4 view of F-35A Lightning II in flight – wz94/Shutterstock
Denmark is replacing its last F-16 aircraft with the F-35A Lightning II fighter jet, which has been used by the Danes since they first arrived there in 2023. On the first of April 2025, Denmark’s F-35s took over from its F-16 in NATO’s Rapid Reaction Warning mission. In total, the Danish Ministry of Defense bought a total of 43 F-35, 27 of which were ordered in 2016 along with 16 additional aircraft in 2025. LF-35A is a single-seat aircraft powered by a 40,000-pound Pratt & Whitney F135-PW-100 engine.
Denmark’s switch to a full fleet of F-35A Lightning IIs makes the Royal Danish Air Force the third air force in the world, after Norway in 2022 and the Netherlands in 2024, to consist entirely of fifth-generation fighter aircraft, all of which are F-35As. All have replaced their aging fleets of F-16s with these advanced, multi-role fighters. The replacement process took as long as it did because of major delays in the production of the F-35 for the various forces around the world.
LF-35, which comes in many variants with distinct features, is made in three different versions for various use cases. LF-35A, the version used by the US Air Force and Denmark, is designed for conventional takeoff and landing. LF-35B, made for the US Marine Corps, has a short takeoff and vertical landing capability. LF-35C, produced for the US Navy, is suitable for launching from and landing on Navy aircraft carriers.
What happens to Denmark’s F-16 fleet?
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy in front of two Ukrainian F-16 planes – UkrPictures/Shutterstock
Denmark’s fleet of F-16 fighter jets are going to two different places. Even though these F-16s are quite old, with the first batch delivered in 1980, the Danes have not only maintained them very well, but also modernized them over the years. These actions helped to make these planes more suitable for sale than scrapping.
One group of F-16s will be delivered to Ukraine, as part of the 19 aircraft that Denmark has agreed to deliver to the Ukrainian Air Force in 2023. of these planes after arriving in Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force uses their F-16s primarily to defend the country against Russian drones and missiles, as well as to drop precision-guided bombs to provide close air support.
A total of 24 of Denmark’s F-16s will be sold to Argentina, which has had no supersonic fighter in its arsenal since the country retired its French Mirages back in 2015. The US Government was heavily involved in this deal because of its export regulations. The Argentine F-16 package also includes training, parts, and simulators, to ensure proper maintenance and operation of the Argentine Air Force’s ‘new’ F-16s. The first six aircraft were delivered in December, with additional batches each year until 2028.
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Read the original article on SlashGear.