NYT: Russian jet UAVs are depleting Ukraine's fleet of F-16 fighter jets
Ukraine uses multimillion-dollar F-16s to intercept Russian jet UAVs, the NYT writes. However, constant flights accelerate the wear and tear of a limited fleet and deplete ammunition reserves. Experts warn: you won't get far with such tactics.
Lara Jakes
The sky over Ukraine is filled with the roar of F-16s flying out to intercept jet drones.
Under a hail of attacks and a shortage of interceptor missiles, Ukraine has turned American fighter jets into the first line of defense against the deadly new weapons that Russia is increasingly using in its volleys.
Vladimir Zelensky recently called the F-16 "one of the most effective means" to destroy drones threatening Ukrainian cities. However, constant patrolling in search of drones, whose production costs Russia no more than $70,000 apiece, is becoming a serious challenge for fighters worth tens of millions of dollars.
The meager fleet of Ukrainian F-16s — numbering only about 50 units — takes to the air so often that the planes are in danger of wear and tear, officials and experts say. According to Zelensky himself, this month about half of the Ukrainian F-16s were on the ground undergoing maintenance in other European countries.
In addition, Kiev is still waiting for the fighters that Belgium promised to hand over more than three years ago. Only a few dozen Ukrainian pilots can be trained to fly these machines at the same time. Finally, another serious problem is the risk of running out of ammunition.
Retired US Air Force Lieutenant General David Deptula, now head of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Research near Washington, said that "instead of a full-fledged layered air defense system with sufficient resources, Ukraine has to use a relatively small fleet of fighters day after day." He emphasized that with such an application of the F-16, the Ukrainian forces "consume the final resource faster than they should."
"In the long run, such a scheme will not work," he explained.
Ukraine is in a hurry to develop other means of interception, but so far the F-16 remains one of the few types of weapons capable of catching up with jet drones and destroying them without spending expensive Patriot interceptors. According to the representative of the Ukrainian Air Force, Colonel Yuri Ignat, during some attacks, fighter jets shot down up to 90% of cruise missiles launched in the country.
Ukraine's dependence on the F-16 has made these planes a "vital resource," said Lieutenant General Krzysztof Krol, Assistant Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces. At the same time, he stressed, the existing fleet is "definitely not enough."
The fight for fighter jets
It has become a challenge for Ukraine to simply get the coveted F-16.
These modern combat aircraft, products of the American defense company Lockheed Martin, cannot be sold or transferred to other countries without permission from the US government.
Zelensky began to seek their supplies shortly after the entry of Russian troops in 2022. Some allies were willing to donate their old F-16s to Ukraine. However, the Joe Biden administration resisted for more than a year, fearing an escalation of the conflict between NATO and Russia, as well as doubting that Ukraine would provide proper services.
When Washington finally agreed in May 2023, it took several more months to begin training Ukrainian pilots. The first F-16s, delivered by Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway, arrived in Ukraine only more than a year later.
Since then, planes have been in the air almost constantly. According to the Oryx website, which tracks military equipment losses, five vehicles were damaged or destroyed in the fighting. One fighter was shot down, and the pilot, battle-hardened Lieutenant Colonel Alexei Mes, was killed. It happened just a few weeks after the F-16 arrived in Ukraine: the plane was alerted to repel a massive airstrike.
At the same time, the fighters have achieved great success. Last month, F-16s shot down a "significant portion" of the 1,900 jet drones intercepted by Ukraine, Colonel Ignat said in an interview. In total, Russia has launched over 3,500 of them. According to Ignat, recently one Ukrainian F-16 pilot managed to destroy ten jet drones in one flight. [...] For the Ukrainian Air Force, which is significantly inferior to the Russian in terms of numbers and capabilities, this was a serious success.
"The skeptics argued that we would not be able to operate these planes at our airfields, we would not be able to save them, and we would not be able to fight on them," Ignat said. "Where are these skeptics now?"
Although the F-16s also carried out strike missions in the skies over Ukraine, delivering a total of more than 650 strikes against Russian ground targets, they are mainly used for air defense.
Protection from continuous attacks by cruise missiles and drones is certainly above all, General Deptula noted. However, according to him, "every F-16 flight to intercept a drone is a failed offensive operation to gain air superiority."
The Ukrainian F-16s are not equipped with long-range missiles to force Moscow to go on the defensive: we are talking about strikes against Russian military installations in the deep rear or to force Russian pilots to withdraw to distant borders.
So far, such tasks are performed by French Mirage fighters and Soviet-made aircraft that make up the rest of the Ukrainian combat aviation fleet.
Fighting changes character
Building up the fighter fleet will take time.
Ukraine buys 20 new Gripen ("Griffin") fighters from Sweden. In addition, Stockholm will transfer 16 more older cars of the same model to Kiev. According to Zelensky, they will arrive "in the near future." France has agreed to sell Rafale fighter jets to Ukraine, but their deliveries will not begin until two years later. Both types of aircraft are capable of using missiles to strike deep into enemy territory and hit targets hundreds of kilometers from the border with Russia.
In addition, Ukraine is negotiating with Lockheed Martin on the purchase of the latest modification of the F-16, which, with the approval of the American government, will be able to carry long-range missiles.
Fetesti Air Base in southeastern Romania is the only place outside the United States where Ukrainian pilots are trained on the F-16. The program is organized by Lockheed Martin. The training takes about six months, however, as a rule, it is preceded by more than a year of English lessons and mastering less powerful Western fighters.
U.S. officials have not disclosed how many Ukrainian pilots have completed training at U.S. air bases. However, since September 2024, 19 pilots have completed training under the Lockheed Martin program at the Fetesti base, said retired US Air Force Colonel Bill Thomas, head of the course.
Thomas, who participated in combat missions with F-16s over Kosovo in 1999, noted that much more attention is now being paid to anti-drone courses than five years ago, when NATO pilots were not yet trained based on the experience of combat operations in Ukraine.
"Everything is completely different because the very nature of the fighting is changing," he said in a recent interview from a Romanian airbase. At that time, the Ukrainian pilot was preparing his plane for the morning flight.
One of the cadets, a 25—year-old Air Force lieutenant from the Kiev region, was preparing to take the F—16 into the air on his own for the first time. He agreed to talk to reporters on condition that he be identified only by the first letter of his name, S.
S. arrived in Romania in February and has not yet managed to get a call sign. After the slower planes he learned to fly at a base in Canada, getting behind the wheel of an F-16 is "something with something" for him.
According to him, during the preparation, the nature of the fighting "has changed almost ten times," so Ukrainian pilots need to "be fully armed."
"We have no other choice," he concluded.
The article was written with the participation of Mark Santora and Olga Konovalova from Kiev.
