Counter-UAS with jet trainers: Slovakia wants the Aero L-39NG Skyfox as a drone hunter too

Armed training jets for counter-UAS: in the view of Slovak Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák, they are a suitable alternative for countering the growing threat posed by combat drones. At the IMAD 2026 air show, he reaffirmed his wish for armed Aero L-39NG Skyfox (-> Slovakia: IMAD 2026 air show drew 70,000 visitors).

The Slovak Air Force is facing a problem with a fixed expiry date. Of the once sizeable L-39 Albatros fleet, only two aircraft are still flying. At their last general overhaul in 2020, both were granted a remaining service life of 1,300 flight hours or 6.5 years – which ends at the end of 2026. Without a successor, Slovakia will lose its only jet-powered training platform. And this just after the country has acquired modern combat aircraft in the form of the Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 (-> Slovakia: procurement of four more F-16 Block 70 confirmed).

Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer-SD) has therefore repeatedly championed the Aero L-39NG, which the manufacturer has been marketing as the Skyfox since autumn 2024. As early as April 2025, he visited the Vodochody plant together with his then Czech counterpart Jana Černochová and stated there that the existing trainer aircraft had “lost their service life”. Ten to twelve aircraft were under discussion – significantly more than the eight that Aero had already offered Slovakia in 2020. At that time, the contract was close to being signed, but it petered out after the fall of the Heger government in spring 2023.

Counter-UAS as an additional role for the Skyfox

What distinguishes the current debate from earlier ones is the rationale. According to Kaliňák, the Skyfox should not only prepare F-16 pilots for fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft but also form “an element of counter-drone defence”. What is meant is a cost-efficient alternative against jet-powered drones, against which deploying an F-16 would hardly be economically justifiable.

Manufacturer Aero Vodochody has deliberately occupied this niche: at the Dubai Air Show, Aero showed for the first time a version of the L-39 Skyfox configured specifically as a drone hunter (-> Aero positions L-39 Skyfox as drone hunter). Equipped with a Williams FJ44-4M engine, a glass cockpit and NATO-compatible pylons, the aircraft can carry gun pods in 12.7 and 20 millimetre calibres, laser-guided 70-millimetre rockets from Thales and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles. Jiří Šedivý, former Chief of the General Staff in the Czech Republic, also points to low operating costs compared with Italian or South Korean competitors.

Kaliňák links the purchase to the participation of domestic industry. The situation is similar in the negotiations on the C-390M, in which around a third of the contract value is to go to Slovak companies. For this, Aero is holding out the prospect of a G2G framework agreement that would involve Letecké opravovne Trenčín, as well as pilot training at the flight training centre in Pardubice, where pilots from Hungary and Croatia are already being trained.

Opposition questions the procedure

The opposition has no doubts about the quality of the aircraft, but it does about the approach. Tomáš Valášek (Progresívne Slovensko) is demanding that the minister first explain what exactly the jets are needed for, which alternatives were assessed and why the L-39NG proved to be the best solution.

“Any normal procurement of this size requires a little more than a press conference”— Tomáš Valášek (Progresívne Slovensko)

Expert observers also point out that the Slovak Armed Forces currently lack both the aircrew and the technical personnel for a full squadron.

Austria is also betting on armed jet trainers

There is a remarkable parallel with the Austrian Armed Forces (Bundesheer). In November 2025, Vienna finalised twelve Leonardo M-346FA in a government-to-government deal with Italy; the volume is around 1.5 billion euros, with deliveries from 2028. Here, too, the choice was deliberately not a pure jet trainer but the armed “Fighter Attack” variant with Grifo radar, self-protection system and air-to-air armament. In addition to training, it is thus also intended to take on operational tasks in airspace security (-> Bundesheer: Leonardo M-346FA as a light combat aircraft).

Both countries, Slovakia and Austria, are thus taking the same path: a next-generation jet trainer must additionally cover a credible operational role that can be operated cheaply compared with fully fledged combat aircraft. The decisive factor is the steadily growing threat posed by drones.