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Adventures of F-16 fighters continue in Ukraine. Despite Kiev’s aspirations, the aircraft did not become the game changer in the conflict, like the previously supplied foreign MLRS, tanks, UAVs etc.
The Ukrainian military complains that Ukrainian F-16s cannot “compete in air battles with high-tech Russian aircraft.” Head of the Communications Department of the Armed Forces of Ukraine demands “more powerful modifications with more powerful radars and long-range missiles, because it is quite difficult to compete in air battles with Russian technological aircraft alone.”
The precious F-16s are yet to enter the air battles but Ukraine has already suffered losses. Denmark and the Netherlands were the first countries to transfer the US-made F-16 fighter jets to the Air Force of Ukraine. The obsolete aircraft purchased in the 1980s had already been decommissioned as both countries acquired modern F-35A fighter jets to replace them. First delivered on August 1, the Ukrainian Air Force lost its first fighter on August 26. Loss of several more aircraft was reported. LINK, LINK
Russian missiles are hunting not only for aircraft but also for the NATO military personnel that supports their operations in Ukraine. The Danish pilot and instructor of F-16 fighter jets, Jeppe Hansen was killed in one of Russian precision strikes on a military training center in Krivy Rih in January.
The aircraft are used to support the air defense as interceptors of Russian cruise missiles and kamikaze drones. So far, the use of F-16s for strikes is yet to be certainly confirmed. The fighters are regularly spotted operating in Western Ukraine, occasionally flying into the area of Mirgorod city in the Poltava region.
Last week F-16s surprisingly flew to the Eastern regions of Ukraine. At least two flights of F-16 fighter jets were recorded in the Zaporizhia region. The aircraft approached the Pologovsky district, turned away and flew back. The monitoring sources did not reveal their entire flight path. Most likely they took off in Poland and landed on Western Ukrainian airfields in Ivano-Frankivsk or Lutsk before their flight towards the Eastern frontlines. The fighters could also move to Ozerny airfield in the Zhytomyr region or Vasilkov in the Kiev region, from where, they could safely fly to the Zaporizhia and Dnipropetrovsk regions to check the safe flight routes and practice the possible strikes on the Russian territory.
Earlier in mid-January, the Air Force of Ukraine also launched a series of training flights of Ukrainian Su-24M, cruise missile carriers, in the rear Western regions. On January 11 and 12, six Ukrainian carriers of Strom Shadow/SCALP cruise missiles took from the Starokonstantinov airfield and flew over he territories of the Khmelnitsky and Vinnytsia regions. The aircraft took off, practiced conditional launches, circled and returned back to the airfield.
In addition, Russian military reporters spotted several flights of Ukrainian AN-26 cargo aircraft from the Rzeszow airfield to the airfields of Ivano-Frankivsk, Uman and Ozerny. The Ukrainian military prepared these airfields to welcome F-16s and now the Su-27 and MiG-29 are deployed there. Thus, AN-26 could transfer missiles there before the strikes.
Since then, Ukrainian forces attempted several strikes with NATO missiles on the Russian territory on January 14 and 17. The attacks were repelled but in response Russian forces launched devastating strikes on targets throughout Ukraine. LINK, LINK, LINK
Judging by the operations of F-16 in Eastern Ukraine, test flights of Ukrainian pilots, flights of US reconnaissance aircraft in the Eastern waters of the Black Sea LINK and the ongoing drone strikes in different Russian regions aimed to reveal positions of Russian air defense, more large-scaled attacks by NATO and Ukraine should be expected. In their turn, Russian forces continue strikes on Ukrainian military airfields across the country. LINK
