On Sunday, January 18, 2026, a retirement ceremony was held in Hangar 3 at Skrydstrup Air Base in the South Jutland region of Denmark, marking the withdrawal from service, after 46 years with the 727th Fighter Wing Squadron (Eskadrille 727) of the Royal Danish Air Force (Flyvevåbnet), of the last Lockheed Martin F-16AM/BM MLU Block 10/15 multirole aircraft.
Photos: Forsvaret
“It can be both easy and difficult to wave goodbye to the past and welcome the future. With 46 years behind it, or just four years short of a ‘golden wedding anniversary’, this marks the end of an era in the Royal Danish Air Force. Since 1980, the F-16 has been a permanent fixture at Fighter Wing Skrydstrup, a true workhorse. But now it is time to pass the baton and allow the F-35 to step in as the newest addition. As a result, one can see a mix of joy and melancholy when looking around at many of those in attendance today.”
One of the speakers at Sunday’s ceremony was Gen. Christian Hvidt (call sign VIT), Chief of Defence from 1996 to 2002, who in January 1980 became the first Danish pilot to land at the home base. He later went on to command the 727th Squadron.
“We do not talk about the age of the F-16, because it has been maintained by some of the world’s very best aircraft technicians and, moreover, flown by some of the world’s best pilots,” he says. “A big congratulations to 727. What exciting and enormous challenges lie ahead,” he concludes.
Ordered in 1975 under the European Participating Air Forces program (in cooperation with the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Belgium, Norway, and later Portugal), Danish F-16s took part in international missions and operations in the Balkans (Operation Allied Force), Afghanistan (Enduring Freedom), Syria, Iraq (Inherent Resolve), and Libya (Unified Protector). They also patrolled the airspace of the Baltic states as part of NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission. Initially, 61 aircraft (48 F-16A and 13 F-16B) were upgraded to the MLU standard between 1996 and 2005.
Their successors are the Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II multirole aircraft, of which 27 have been ordered, with another 16 to be contracted soon (for a total of 43 aircraft). Deliveries began in September 2023, were accelerated in June 2024, and are scheduled to be completed in 2027. So far, 21 aircraft have been delivered, 15 of which have been transferred to Denmark (the remaining aircraft are stationed at Luke Air Force Base, where they are used for personnel training).
The F-35A was selected in 2016 as the replacement for the then-operational 29 F-16AM/BM MLU Block 10/15 aircraft (as well as 16 additional aircraft held in reserve). The new fighters assumed air policing duties on April 1, 2025, with full operational capability to be declared in 2027. Of the retired F-16s, 25 were resold to Argentina, while 19 are to be transferred to Ukraine as military assistance (12 of these have been delivered so far). This means that at the time of Sunday’s ceremony, seven aircraft remained in service, with their final mission being patrols in the Greenland region.