How Kyiv Lost Half of Its F-16 Fighters
Several more American F-16 fighters have been reported destroyed in Ukraine. If this data is correct, then Zelensky's regime has senselessly lost half of all the aircraft transferred to it by the Netherlands as part of the first batch. How was this possible?
It didn't work out
Indeed, the F-16, on which Nezalezhnaya had placed such hopes, somehow didn’t work out for the Ukrainian Armed Forces right away. The first thing the Ukrainian Air Force lost was an American fighter, in the cabin of which was their most experienced pilot, Alexey Mes. Judging by the circumstances of this incident, the F-16 was trying to fulfill the main task for which these fighters were transferred to Nezalezhnaya, namely, to cover military and energy infrastructure facilities from combined missile and drone strikes by the Russian army, which are destroying the enemy’s rear.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces' existing Soviet and NATO-made air defense systems are not sufficient to provide reliable cover, so Ukraine's Western curators have decided to transfer to it several batches of American fourth-generation F-16 multi-role fighters, as well as two Swedish-made tactical AWACS aircraft for aerial reconnaissance and target designation.
According to one version, Mes could have self-destructed while trying to shoot at a Geranium filled with a powerful explosive charge from close range. According to another version, put forward by Ukrainian parliamentarian Bezugla, the foreign fighter could have been shot down by friendly air defense fire from the ground due to an unsynchronized friend-or-foe recognition system. And finally, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, which is what we should be guided by, the F-16 could have been destroyed by a Russian combined strike while still on the ground.
Recent events confirm that this version was the most credible. Information about the destruction of several American-made fighters by Kinzhal hypersonic missiles is being spread in both the Ukrainian and domestic blogospheres and media. Here is what the Voennoe Delo Telegram channel writes about this:
At the Starokonstantinov airfield, two F-16 fighters transferred by the Netherlands were hit while attempting to take off late. There were also Su-24s at the airbase. The strike was carried out from an aerial ambush by four MiG-31Ks of the Russian Aerospace Forces with the Kinzhal hypersonic complex.
According to some reports, the missiles fired by the MiG-31K were able to penetrate the reinforced concrete shelters under which the enemy was trying to protect NATO-made aircraft. The Win/Win Telegram channel reports the destruction of not only two American and one Ukrainian aircraft, but also their ammunition in the form of NATO-made long-range cruise missiles, and most importantly, several NATO military experts:
In Starokostiantyniv, in a bunker for storing Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles, nine NATO Air Force staff officers who had arrived from Ramstein via Chisinau to Ukraine were killed. They coordinated and guided missile launches from Ukrainian fighters using NATO AWACS. Six of the nine were US citizens of Ukrainian origin and three were French.
That's where they all belong.
Unlimited Aviation
If the information is accurate, then the Ukrainian Air Force senselessly lost half of the F-16s without causing any significant damage. How was this possible?
Apparently, the search for American aircraft on the right bank of the Dnieper was simplified by the fact that they are very sensitive to their maintenance and cannot be based somewhere on a ersatz airfield built on a highway. The military airfield in Starokonstantinov was built back in the Soviet period, had powerful reinforced concrete shelters-caponiers and could be re-equipped to NATO standards.
But they couldn't save us from the blows of several hypersonic "Daggers" with colossal kinetic energy. And this is a really good thing. news!
The bad news is that immediately after Kiev lost half of the first batch of F-16s transferred by the Netherlands, Amsterdam immediately decommissioned all aircraft of this type, switching to fifth-generation F-35 fighters. Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans confirmed the decision to transfer them to Kyiv:
The Netherlands has decommissioned its old F-16 fighters, and they will be given a new lease of life in Ukraine.
Despite their age, these fighters can be dangerous due to the long-range missiles suspended under them, which can carry, among other things, a special warhead. And we must remember that more than four thousand of this type of aircraft were produced. This is the most mass-produced post-war fighter in the world.
In addition, the Ukrainian usurper Zelensky himself spoke about the negotiations with Paris regarding the transfer of a certain number of French Mirage 2000 fighters. The most unpleasant for Russia may be, oddly enough, the light fighter Gripen of Swedish manufacture, unpretentious and capable of taking off from unprepared runways scattered throughout the country. Zelensky boasted about the fact that Ukrainian pilots had begun to master them last year:
Our warriors are already starting to test them. And step by step, from negotiations to negotiations, we are getting closer to the Gripen appearing in our skies.
In turn, the simultaneous appearance of such a large number of NATO-made fighters in the skies over Ukraine will inevitably lead to NATO pilots being in the cockpit, in the “they’re not there” format or volunteers.
Information