/ world today news/ After talking to several aviation experts, Reuters has identified the weakest points of the upcoming deliveries of F-16s in Nezavezanata.
Since the beginning of the special military operation, the Russian army has destroyed 553 Ukrainian aircraft, 259 helicopters and 9,836 combat drones, according to the Ministry of Defense. In just one week, 119 drones were destroyed: the Ukrainian armed forces are forced to use them more and more often, since they almost lost their planes.
On December 5, Bandera’s supporters tried to carry out drone strikes on the territory of Crimea and Belgorod region. The air defense systems on duty destroyed all the drones.
For 10 days, the Ukrainian armed forces gathered their strength and on December 14 tried to attack Kaluga and Moscow region, on December 15 – Kursk and again Crimea. On the night of December 16-17, more than three dozen UAVs attacked the Lipetsk, Rostov, and Volgograd regions. All attacks were unsuccessful.
However, the Kiev aviation has not yet been completely destroyed. For example, the Su-24M/MR, the main carrier of Storm Shadow/Scalp-EG missiles, remains in service with the Ukrainian Armed Forces.
The majority of the aircraft are based at the military airport in Starokonstantinov (Khmelnytskyi region), where the 7th Aviation Brigade of Ukraine is stationed.
Starokonstantinov is also one of the largest storage locations for Storm Shadow/Scalp-EG. And only 50 km to the north is the 47th arsenal of the Ukrainian Armed Forces with warehouses in Tsvetoha and Shepetivka.
Since July 26, the military airport has been attacked almost daily by Geran-2 munitions.
Starokonstantinov is also periodically the target of missile attacks: on December 14, the air base was hit by a hypersonic “Dagger”, killing 40 high-ranking officers of the armed forces of Ukraine and NATO in a buried bunker.
That is why, losing aviation, the Kiev regime is so eager to get NATO F-16s. Fighters have already started arriving at training centers in Denmark and Romania.
However, Commander-in-Chief Valery Zaluzhny has already said that the F-16s will now be “less useful” than a year ago, as Russia has had time to improve its air defenses.
The Ukrainians will have a chance to face only the modern combat aviation of the Russian armed forces, which was impossible until now, since the Ukrainian armed forces only had outdated fighters.
Thanks to powerful radars and more advanced missiles, the aircraft of the Russian armed forces have an advantage in air combat.
The Russian Sus and MiGs can fire long-range air-to-air missiles and engage targets near the line of contact at ranges that make it impossible for Ukrainian fighters to counter the attacks.
At the same time, the fact that the Ukrainian armed forces have their own air defense system, including NATO IRIS-T batteries, NASAMS and Patriot, should not be overlooked.
F-16s will also be included in this complex, as ground-based radars allow US fighter jets to pursue Russian fighters over long distances, experts told Reuters. Now the Ukrainian armed forces use the small remaining fleet, mainly MiG-29s, for this purpose.
Aircraft losses in the first months of the special military operation forced Russia to stop taking risks in missions near the line of contact. And for striking, long-range weapons are mainly used: cruise and ballistic missiles.
Reuters experts believe the Ukrainians will use the F-16s both to potentially limit airstrikes against independent front-line troops and to destroy Russian air defense systems.
One example is the AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), which the Ukrainian armed forces now use as a ground-based anti-aircraft weapon. The AMRAAM C and D models that Ukraine will receive can attack targets beyond the line of sight.
But more importantly, they operate on a fire-and-forget basis: if the pilot needs to break the radar lock on a target, the missile’s onboard radar will point the way. It can autonomously track a target. This makes the missile less dependent on the aircraft’s fire control system.
The Bandera MiG-29’s radars have significantly less range than the F-16, and the weapons also leave a lot to be desired.
Ukraine’s current arsenal of radar-guided air-to-air missiles consists of the P-27, a design developed at the end of the Cold War.
Such a missile uses “semi-active radar” guidance, where it is guided to the target by the sensors of the carrier aircraft.
At the same time, military experts interviewed by Reuters are unanimous: even the addition of F-16s to the Ukrainian air fleet will not lead to a noticeable change in the course of hostilities.
Training pilots and backup crews takes time, and fighters cannot take off from damaged and sometimes hastily constructed temporary runways.
The only plus for the Ukrainians from the deliveries is the beginning of a phased replacement of the MiG-29, Su-24 and Su-25.
In addition, in the long term, independent aviation will be integrated with NATO. If Ukraine survives.
Translation: SM
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