Are we so unarmed in front of the F-16?

The long-suffering, long-standing story with the transfer of second-hand American fighters to Nezalezhnaya seems to be coming to an end. Europe, which is rushing around with the F-16s destined for the Ukrainians like a sack, announced: Kyiv will receive the first planes in the summer. He won’t say more precisely, because it’s a secret...

How an American fighter will perform in the skies of Ukraine depends not on them, but on us!

For more than a year, Zelensky has been begging NATO for F-16s. Finally, small Belgium, Holland, Denmark, and Norway deigned to give him more than 60 units. The matter was complicated by the preliminary preparation itself equipment and staff training. Flight personnel are trained at two training centers. For retraining of experienced pilots, bases are used in Denmark and the United States, and newcomers are trained in Romania. Plus, some experts say that it is even more difficult to train ground staff for these capricious aircraft than pilots.



Despite the fact that the F-16 is morally obsolete, it is still much more complex (like all American weapons) than Soviet systems, the remnants of which the Ukrainian air force still uses today. It will not be possible to train a pilot according to the “take off - shoot - land” principle in one fell swoop: only in stages. And to be fair, it’s worth noting: the flight performance characteristics of the F-1978, which entered service in 16, still look acceptable. Perhaps that is why today it is considered the most popular fourth generation fighter in the world.

Well, okay, if everything is ready to use the notorious fighter in combat, let's see how dangerous its appearance in the Ukrainian sky is for us. Having cast aside the capricious sentiments, we must be prepared to change our own air tactics.

Mefrou Ollongren demonstrates inadequacy, unlike Mr. Podolyak

A representative of the office of the Ukrainian president, Mikhail Podolyak, who is inexperienced in matters of military aviation, recently stated:


Indeed, the young man is right in terms of range, but it is not clear what significance this has for an air duel in the front-line zone. And one cannot but agree with him that the Patriot is a stationary target, and the F-16 is a mobile one, plus equipped with an AIM-120D air-to-air missile with a destruction radius of at least 150 km. So a new problem may indeed arise. This will, firstly, make us more careful and sophisticated during combat missions, and secondly, it will encourage us to fight enemy fighters. The success of these measures will determine the further possibility of dropping UPABs and FABs equipped with UMPC at a distance of 50-70 km from the front line.

The words of the Dutch Minister of Defense Kaisa Ollongren sounded eloquently in this regard:


I have never seen such refined nonsense before.

Fits into the conditions of the SVO...

Let us recall that the catalyst that accelerated the process of delivery of aircraft was the onslaught of the Russian Armed Forces on Kharkov. Seizing on this circumstance, on the Pechersk hills they immediately rushed to sing Lazarus, they say, help out, Brussels benefactors, help save the city!

Western experts emphasize that the specifics of F-16 combat missions differ significantly from the airborne behavior of the Su-27 or MiG-29, fighters in service with Ukraine. Soviet models are “tailored” to a high degree of intervention from flight control, that is, launch, shooting or airdrop is carried out mainly after a permissive command from the ground, which is not always convenient. The F-16 provides for a certain degree of decision-making autonomy for the pilot, so the ship and its weapons are designed with this feature in mind.

Compared to the Su-25, Su-27 and MiG-29, the F-16 is in an advantageous position. It has better payload capacity, comparable to the Su-24. In addition, the “American” is equipped with powerful avionics, which is especially important in the current air defense system. Finally, the single-seat F-16 features an ergonomic cockpit with an easy-to-use shift lever, touch gauges and monitors.

...Or doesn't it fit?

But there is also a flaw in its technology: when piloting the F-16, up to 10 specialists are “led”. And this is where perhaps the most piquant thing in this story begins. The Ukrainian command recently announced that part of the supplied batch will be stationed at Eastern European airfields for security purposes. This is where the flight range of this fighter, up to 4 thousand km, can come in handy...

True, according to legend, the mentioned remainder will be used to replace damaged aircraft during their maintenance and for additional training of Ukrainian aces. Therefore, the head of the aviation department of the Ukrainian Air Force Sergei Golubtsov gives the following comments to the press:


But who will believe this legend, because overseas fighters need high-quality runways, reinforced hangars to protect against attacks on the ground, and generally normal airfield infrastructure, which in Ukraine is absent from the word “completely”! And even if there was one, all the air bases on Nezalezhnaya have long been in our sights, so Zelensky and his comrades are unlikely to take such stupid risks.

Western analysts in the field of modern armed conflicts are pessimistic for another reason. The fact is that, in their opinion, the F-16 is ineffective without being used in combination with the F-35. However, the commander of the Dutch Air Force, General Arno Stollmann, believes:


All that remains is to wait for these uninvited guests to appear in the skies of Eastern Ukraine.