The Royal Danish Air Force will stage a farewell event at its Skrydstrup air base on 18 January as the service prepares to conclude operations with the Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter.

Flown by Denmark since 1980, the nation’s F-16s have seen operational use over Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Serbia and Syria, completed NATO Baltic Air Policing deployments to Estonia and Lithuania, and also helped to guard Greenland and Iceland.

A total of 58 A/B-model examples were originally acquired by Copenhagen, which subsequently received additional jets through the type’s service life.

Despite the remaining examples’ advanced age, the Danish defence ministry notes: “The air force has looked after and cared for the fighter jets so thoroughly that… they are in such good condition that they will be given life elsewhere.

“Some of the planes, along with a lot of spare parts and training of both pilots and ground personnel, have been donated to Ukraine’s fight for freedom,” the ministry says.

“The remaining aircraft have been sold to Argentina, which received the first aircraft in December 2025,” it adds. That transfer involved Buenos Aires taking its lead tranche of six F-16A/Bs from an eventual 24 jets.

To be attended by defence minister Troels Lund Poulsen and air force commander Major General Jan Dam, the farewell event also will feature the RDAF’s successor type, the Lockheed F-35A.

Aviation analytics company Cirium records Denmark as having so far fielded 20 examples of the fifth-generation type. Copenhagen originally planned to field a 27-strong fleet of F-35s, but announced last October that it will boost that total to an eventual 43 jets.

At that time, Poulsen described the expanded procurement as to “deliver a historic strengthening of the Danish air force”.