Four were already agreed. Now Prague is talking about twelve more. On Wednesday 11 November, Czech Industry and Trade Minister Karel Havlíček told reporters in Kyiv that the Czech Republic could supply Ukraine with up to 16 Aero L-39 Skyfox jets, the new-generation successor to the Cold War L-39 Albatros trainer.

According to the Czech news agency ČTK, Havlíček said four Skyfoxes had been confirmed in the past, and that he had now discussed the delivery of a further 12 with Ukrainian Prime Minister Serhiy Koretskyi. He said he came away from the meeting with a very good feeling. No contract for the additional aircraft has been announced.

The jets would not be simple trainers. The talk in Prague and Kyiv is about drones: a cheap, fast, crewed hunter for the Shahed-type attack drones Russia launches at Ukraine almost every night.

What Havlíček said in Kyiv

Havlíček, who is also a deputy prime minister in Andrej Babiš’s government, was in Ukraine on a two-day business mission with around 50 Czech companies. ČTK reported that Prime Minister Koretskyi brought his energy minister Denys Shmyhal and transport minister Mykola Kalashnyk into the talks.

The next day, Thursday 12 November, the manufacturer weighed in. Aero Vodochody spokesman Lukáš Hora confirmed to ČTK that Ukraine is interested in the Skyfox and could use both the trainer and the combat configuration. The company praised the Czech government’s role in the talks, but said that, given the security situation, it would give no details on production status, schedules or delivery dates.

Why not the L-159?

Kyiv’s first wish was a different Czech jet. Ukraine had asked for L-159 ALCA light combat aircraft from the Czech Air Force inventory, again to fight drones. The Babiš government refused, arguing that the Czech military needs them, and Chief of the General Staff Miroslav Hlaváč told ČTK in October that the matter was closed. In the same breath, he pointed to possible Skyfox deliveries instead.

The Skyfox is a thoroughly reworked L-39. It first flew as the L-39NG prototype in December 2018 and received its Skyfox name in October 2024. A Williams FJ44-4M turbofan replaces the Soviet-era Ivchenko engine, the airframe is new and lighter, and the old wingtip tanks are gone. The first production jets went to the Czech military flight training centre at Pardubice.

A drone hunter on a trainer’s budget

The version most likely meant for Ukraine is the Drone Hunter, which Aero is still developing. It pairs an electro-optical targeting system with launchers for 70 mm laser-guided rockets, with Thales working on the rocket integration. ČTK stresses that the Drone Hunter has not yet been used operationally and that further testing has to prove what it can do.

The economics explain the interest. TWZ reports that Aero Vodochody puts the Skyfox’s operating costs at roughly $1,700 to $2,300 per flight hour, against around $22,000 for an F-16-class fighter. Ukraine’s F-16s and MiG-29 are badly needed for harder missions than chasing propeller-driven drones. Justin Bronk, an airpower specialist at the London think tank RUSI, told TWZ that the Skyfox fits the job unusually well.

Bronk also flagged the jet’s main weakness: it has no radar. He argued that this matters less in Ukraine, where a dense network of radar-equipped ground stations can steer interceptors to the rough position of a target. The Fuerza Aérea de Ucrania also already has pilots and mechanics who know the older L-39, and its Albatroses have flown in this war.

Aero Vodochody’s own film of the L-39NG, the jet now sold as the Skyfox.

The production queue

Speed is the open question. According to ČTK, Aero currently builds about 12 Skyfoxes a year and says it could raise that to 18. It has sold more than 40, and as of September its production was booked until the second quarter of 2027. The Skyfox already flies with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Vietnam, and Angola and Armenia have ordered it.

Afterburner covered the arrival of Thales guided rockets on the L-39 Skyfox Drone Hunter in October. Until a contract is signed, it remains an offer, not an order. But for a trainer designed in the Cold War, a second career as a front-line drone killer is now a real possibility.

Sources: ČTK via České noviny, Hospodářské noviny, Ekonomický deník, TWZ, Aero Vodochody, ČT24

Header photo: Mossback / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0