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Ukraine is set to receive its highly anticipated fleet of F-16 fighter jets this summer.
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The U.S.-made aircraft have flown combat missions around the world in recent decades.
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However, former US military pilots say Ukraine will be the jet’s most important combat test.
The long-awaited delivery of F-16s to Ukraine is just around the corner, and these advanced U.S.-made fighter jets can’t come soon enough for their armed forces.
Western-supplied F-16s will give Kiev’s current fleet of vintage Soviet-era fighter jets a significant boost in performance for key attack and defense roles, boosting their firepower with the right ammunition.
The battle-tested Fighting Falcon has decades of flying experience in harsh wartime environments, such as the Middle East and the Balkans. The fourth-generation fighter has completed an impressive collection of high-profile missions over the years.
But the skies over Ukraine will be the most dangerous battlefield the fighter jets have faced yet, former US military pilots told Business Insider, as the planes face off against Russia’s advanced air defense systems and long-range air-to-air missiles.
A battle-tested fighter jet
Ukraine first requested F-16s from its Western partners in the first weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but the United States only agreed to a transfer of its allies to Kiev last summer.
Four NATO members – Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands – have jointly pledged to send dozens of F-16s to Ukraine, with pilots trained in the United States and Europe. The fighter jets are expected to arrive sometime this summer, reportedly as early as June.
The F-16s are a remarkable evolution of Ukraine’s Soviet-era aircraft fleet. At the beginning of the war, Kiev flew Su-24, Su-25, Su-27 and MiG-29.
The Fighting Falcon has a more efficient internal layout and better electronic warfare capabilities than many of Ukraine’s current jets. In addition, it is a very nimble and maneuverable aircraft that can be equipped with advanced targeting cannons and air-to-ground guns to attack ground vehicles and positions.
Since the first F-16 prototype flew 50 years ago, the multi-role fighter has flown missions in difficult combat environments around the world. However, notable successes were first achieved by Israeli pilots in the early 1980s.
Israeli Air Force fighter aircraft, including F-16s, flew a Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) campaign in Lebanon’s heavily fortified Bekaa Valley in June 1982. Within hours, Israel had destroyed a large number of Soviet and Syrian-owned surface-to-air missile systems (SAM) and enemy aircraft without suffering any casualties. It was a stunning tactical victory after the IDF’s heavy losses against SAMs in the Yom Kippur War nine years earlier.
The U.S. Air Force first flew the F-16 in combat during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in the early 1990s. The fighter flew more missions than any other aircraft and was used to attack enemy airfields, missile sites and military production facilities.
Later that decade, F-16s were deployed to the Balkans as part of NATO’s Operation Allied Force air campaign against Yugoslavia. There they flew SEAD, close air support and counter-air missions, destroying enemy radars, fighter aircraft and armored vehicles.
In those sorties in the 1990s, the Air Force lost only 17 aircraft in combat – a tiny number compared to the tens of thousands of sorties flown, according to data from the Defense Technical Information Center. Five of these aircraft were F-16s.
Other militaries – such as Pakistan, Turkey and Egypt – have also used the F-16 in conflicts of varying intensity over the years. More recently, the F-16 operated over Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and was also used to combat the Islamic State.
“The toughest scenario the F-16 will face”
Although F-16s have flown in many demanding operational environments over the past 50 years, they are still likely facing their most dangerous battlefield yet, according to former U.S. military pilots.
“Going into Desert Storm, arguably against the third-largest army in the world and a very powerful air force – that was a very, very difficult situation,” said John Baum, a retired U.S. Air Force lieutenant colonel who logged over 2,300 hours as a U.S. lieutenant colonel Air Force F-16 pilot said BI.
“F-16s from Ukraine fighting Russia – without a doubt the toughest scenario the F-16s will face,” said Baum, now a senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
According to open-source intelligence site Oryx, which tracks war losses, Ukraine has already lost at least 86 aircraft since the war began, underscoring the danger pilots face in the air.
The threats that Ukraine’s F-16s will face include advanced Russian air defense systems such as the S-300 and the sophisticated S-400, a formidable fleet of Su-35s and MiG-31s, which are matched by R-37s with large They are armed with range-based air-to-air missiles and powerful radars, as well as early warning aircraft that can detect them hundreds of kilometers away.
“There are countless ways to detect these F-16s,” Brynn Tannehill, defense analyst and former US Navy aviator, told BI.
In particular, Russia’s arsenal of surface-to-air systems is more modern and advanced than those the F-16 has faced in previous conflicts, such as the SA-2, SA-3 and SA-6 in the Bekaa Valley.
“The Russians are bringing high-end equipment” to the Ukraine war, Tannehill said, adding that previous F-16 adversaries in the Middle East such as Iraq and Syria “usually had old Soviet equipment in service and probably not quite like this “were well trained” or “equipped” as Moscow is now.
Experts say the F-16 would be a valuable tool to combat Russia’s formidable arsenal of air defense systems and conduct SEAD and destroy enemy air defense (DEAD) missions.
Ukraine already has U.S.-provided air-to-surface AGM-88 HARM, or high-speed anti-radiation missiles, that can detect enemy radars. But Kiev’s Soviet-era aircraft were not designed to interface with these missiles, while the F-16 was actually designed to carry them – allowing for more effective and dynamic targeting.
Russia “probably has one of the most robust and advanced integrated air defense systems in the world, but the F-16 will be able to build situational awareness and relay that picture to the rest of the Ukrainian armed forces,” Baum said.
The fighter jets can then use their HARM targeting systems and missiles to attack the Russian radars.
Perhaps one of the biggest issues fighters will face is the physical design of the operational environment, Baum said. If Ukrainian F-16 aircraft take off, they could find themselves immediately within range of Russian surface-to-air systems, rather than having neutral territory that they can use to their advantage to safely approach the combat zone.
Ukrainian pilots “could be observed and targeted before they can even begin to use their own tactics,” Baum said.
Defuse the battlefield
In a defensive role, F-16 aircraft can add an additional layer to Ukraine’s air defense network, which has been stretched thin in recent months as Kiev waited for U.S. lawmakers to approve additional funding to replenish its dwindling stockpile of critical interceptor munitions could fill up.
Ukraine already has AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 air-to-air missiles in its arsenal and can equip its F-16s with these ammunition to intercept Russian disposable attack drones, cruise missiles and fighter-bombers that are gliding bombing Ukrainian troops . This would help complement Kiev’s existing air defenses, which consist of Soviet-era systems and Western systems such as the US-provided Patriot batteries and NASAMS.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has increasingly focused on Russian air defense and reconnaissance capabilities in recent months – which may have softened the battlefield for the arrival of F-16 aircraft.
In March, for example, Western intelligence said Moscow had likely grounded its fleet of A-50 early warning and control aircraft after Ukraine shot down two of those planes within weeks. Most recently, in mid-April, Kiev used long-range missiles to destroy several S-400 launchers and radar stations at a Russian base on the occupied Crimean peninsula.
“Ukraine has done a lot to weaken Russia’s counter-detection capabilities of its own aircraft,” Tannehill said. “And this could be a sign that some of this was done in anticipation of getting F-16s and being able to push them a little further.”
Read the original article on Business Insider