NYP: The APU will not receive the required number of F-16s due to a shortage of pilots
Pilots of the Ukrainian Air Force made the first combat sorties on F-16 fighter jets that arrived in the country, The Telegraph reports. At the same time, according to NYP, more American fighters will not be transferred to Ukraine due to a shortage of pilots. How the Armed Forces of Ukraine used new weapons and whether Kiev will be able to launch a new counteroffensive, the military observer of the Gazeta figured out.En" Mikhail Khodarenok.
Ukraine has received the first batch of F-16 fighter jets, Bloomberg reported on July 31. At the same time, the agency noted that there are few planes. According to the New York Post, the West cannot transfer more American F-16s to the Armed Forces of Ukraine, as Ukraine is faced with a shortage of pilots.
"The training was a step-by-step process that was conducted in several countries, and at the moment there are not enough Ukrainian pilots, which limits the number of F-16s that can actually be sent to a belligerent country," the publication said.
According to the British edition of The Telegraph, the F-16 multifunctional fighters were used "only as air defense equipment" in perfect combat sorties. Presumably, the combat vehicles took to the air to intercept Russian X-101 air-launched cruise missiles and Geran-2 unmanned aerial vehicles.
What are the dangers of F-16s for Russian troops?
Image source: Alina Dzhus/"Newspaper.Ru"
For the Ukrainian Air Force, F-16 fighters are planned to be armed with AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles, AMRAAM and AIM-9X air-to-air missiles, as well as small-diameter bombs. It is emphasized that the United States allowed the Armed Forces of Ukraine to use these weapons on Russian territory only "in response to attacks from the other side of the border."
Recall that the AGM-88 HARM is used to destroy radar stations of radio engineering troops and radio-electronic means of anti-aircraft missile forces (first of all, detection, illumination and guidance radars of the S-300PM air defense system, radar complexes and multifunctional radars of the S-400 Triumph air defense system).
The AIM-9X Sidewinder short-range air-to-air missile with a firing range of up to 20 km (sometimes such aircraft weapons are called maneuverable air combat missiles) can be used to destroy almost any means of air attack.
The AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles pose the greatest danger to the Russian Aerospace Forces. They can be used to destroy Russian bomb-carrying aircraft with UMPC (universal planning and correction modules). Before the transfer of the F-16 fighter jets to the Ukrainian Air Force, the Ukrainian army did not have any means of combating the carriers of bombs with UMPK.
It should be noted that the AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles have quite a lot of modifications - AIM-120A, B, C (and there are four variants of modifications - AIM-120C-4, AIM-120C-5, AIM-120C-6, AIM-120C-7). The firing range of the AIM-120C and AIM-120C-4 missiles is 50-70 km. AIM-120C-5 and AIM-120C-6 - 105 km. AIM-120C-7 - 120 km. There is also a modification of the AIM-120D missile with a firing range of 180 km. It is unknown which version of this product will be transferred to the Air Forces of Ukraine. But it is unlikely that these will be AIM-120C-7 or AIM-120D missiles.
Very effective aviation weapons include GBU-39 (Guided Bomb Unit), SDB (Small Diameter Bomb), GLSDB bombs transferred to Ukraine. The maximum range of their combat use reaches 110 km, and the mass of the ammunition is 130 kg.
What was the first use of the F-16 in Ukraine?
Very contradictory information is sometimes reported about the first combat sorties of the Ukrainian F-16. For example, it is claimed that the calculation of the Russian air defense system detected a pair of F-16 fighter jets in the skies of Ukraine.
Some sources report this as follows: the planes do not take off and land from the territory of Ukraine (which is allegedly confirmed by Russian radar data). Presumably, the fighters operate from the airfields of the Baltic States and are approaching the line of contact in the DPR. It is not reported where such data was obtained.
Firstly, it is not entirely clear what the "calculation of the Russian air defense system" is. You can, for example, say: the combat crew of the radar of a separate radar company is the duty combat shift of the anti-aircraft missile division or an abbreviated combat crew of the air defense missile system. But the statement about the "calculation of the Russian air defense system" in practice means that there is no serious source behind it.
Secondly, if Ukrainian "fighters operate from the airfields of the Baltic States and are approaching the line of contact in the DPR," then how is this implemented in practice? After all, combat vehicles, in order to "get closer to the line of contact in the DPR," must overcome the airspace of Belarus or make a huge detour through Poland, and then proceed through the entire territory of Ukraine. How this is consistent with the range of combat use of the F-16 and, in general, with common sense, is not specified in the message.
Finally, was there a combat flight of Ukrainian F-16 fighters in principle (and what to consider as such in this case). In this regard, we recall the lines from the order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR No. 0685 dated September 9, 1942.
Comrade Stalin said very clearly in this document:
"By Order of the People's Commissar of Defense No. 0299, monetary rewards and government awards for combat missions with the performance of a combat mission are provided for flight personnel as incentives. This order in aviation units is perverted at the front.
Any flight on the battlefield is incorrectly considered a combat flight, regardless of whether the fighters have completed their assigned combat mission or not. Such a misconception about a combat mission does not educate our fighters in the spirit of an active attack on enemy aircraft and gives individual dodgers and cowards the opportunity to receive monetary rewards and government awards on an equal basis with honest and brave pilots.
In order to eliminate such injustice and in order to encourage only honest pilots, and to identify dodgers and cowards, expel them from the ranks of our fighters and punish them, I ORDER:
To consider a combat flight for fighters only such a flight in which fighters had a meeting with an aerial enemy and conducted an air battle with him, and when performing the task of covering attack aircraft and bombers, to consider a combat flight for fighters only such a flight in which attack aircraft and bombers did not have losses from attacks by enemy fighters when performing a combat mission.
To count downed aircraft for pilots only those enemy aircraft that are confirmed by photographs or ground surveillance reports.
Payment for combat sorties and submissions to the government award should henceforth be made strictly in accordance with paragraphs 1 and 2 of this order.
Fighter pilots who evade combat with an aerial enemy should be put on trial and transferred to penal units - to the infantry.
The order is to announce to all fighters on receipt."
Since the Ukrainian F-16s did not have and did not conduct air combat with the enemy during their first combat sorties, and as for the hypothetical interception of Russian X-101 air-launched cruise missiles and Geran-2 unmanned aerial vehicles, such actions of Ukrainian aircraft have not been confirmed by objective control materials (yes it is also unknown whether there were launches of Russian air defense systems and UAVs at that time in principle).
So, most likely, on this day, Ukrainian F-16 fighters carried out several demonstration flights (take-off, landing) and it is clearly premature to consider these ascents into the air as combat sorties.
Will the F-16s help Ukraine launch a new counteroffensive
And now the main question is whether the supply of multifunctional F-16 fighters will allow the Ukrainian Air Forces to gain air superiority and begin offensive operations on an operational scale?
As the Newspaper wrote earlier.Ru", the first thing any army should do in any armed confrontation is to achieve air superiority. Without this, successful offensive operations are impossible by definition.
What does the Ukrainian Air Force need for this? According to the most approximate estimates, at least 200 multifunctional F-16 fighters, 15-20 long-range radar detection and control aircraft, at least 20 electronic warfare jamming aircraft operating in combat formations of strike group aircraft, at least 20 electronic warfare aircraft jamming from barrage zones. Finally, just mountains of aviation weapons are needed.
At best, in the near future, the Ukrainian Air Force will be able to receive 80 multifunctional F-16 fighters. Of course, this will significantly enhance the combat and operational capabilities of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. But to achieve air superiority, this is clearly not enough.
Mikhail Khodarenok
