Colonel Khodarenok predicted battles between F-16 and Su-35S fighters in the near future
The Air Forces of Ukraine received the first four (according to other sources - six) multifunctional F-16 fighters. How Kiev will use them and why air battles between the Su-35S/Su-30SM and F-16 will take place very soon - in the material of the military expert "Gazeta.En" by Mikhail Khodarenka.
Information about the locations of the multifunctional F-16 fighters received for equipping the Air Forces of Ukraine is very contradictory. According to one source, they landed at the Vasilkov airfield in the Kiev region, where President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky made several statements about this. According to the Condottiero Telegram channel, the cars landed at Limanskoye airfield in the Odessa region (60 km northwest of Odessa).
As for the number of combat vehicles received by the Armed Forces of Ukraine, there is no clarity here either. Either the Ukrainian Air Force received four fighters, or six (the number ten is also called).
By and large, in the current situation, such a disagreement in assessments and opinions should even be considered normal, since no one has canceled the elements of operational camouflage on the part of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. For the same reasons, it should be critically considered that a Patriot air defense system battery and two IRIS-T air defense systems have been deployed to cover the Limanskoye airfield. Presumably, the information was provided to open sources by the command of the anti-aircraft missile forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
From the same category, information that an Airbus A330 Stratotanker aircraft of the British Air Force, which landed at one of the airfields of Romania, will be used to refuel Ukrainian aircraft in the air.
First of all, this machine is not a Stratotanker. The Boeing KC-135 Stratotanker is a completely different aircraft. And the tanker aircraft based on the A330, which is equipped with the Royal Air Force of Great Britain (Royal Air Force), is called the Airbus A330 MRTT/KC-30A Voyager. As you know, if you get confused in the little things, then you get confused in the main thing.
Image source: Alina Dzhus/"Newspaper.Ru"
Secondly, after the use of the Voyager tanker aircraft in combat, the UK should be considered a participant in the armed conflict in Ukraine. As well as Romania, if Ukrainian F-16s are based on its territory, striking at Russian territory.
And this, as you know, is fundamentally at odds with the attitudes of the United States and NATO, which are not interested in escalating the conflict and extending it beyond Ukraine. So the information that the A330 MRTT/KC-30A aircraft is used, as well as the territory of Romania (and at the same time Moldova), in combat operations, should be treated critically.
How Kiev can use F-16 fighter jets
Since there are relatively few multifunctional F-16 fighters received and by the end of 2024 it is unlikely that there will be more than 20 of them, then, most likely, fighters are primarily used to destroy Russian carrier aircraft with high-explosive bombs of large caliber with universal planning and correction modules. It is these aviation weapons of the VC of the Russian Federation that are currently causing the AFU the most trouble.
In turn, the Russian Aerospace Forces need to cover the carrier aircraft.
It will also turn out which is more effective - the Russian R-37 long-range air-to-air missile (with a claimed firing range of 300 km) or the AIM-120 AMRAAM (again, there is no exact data on which modification of this product was received by the Ukrainian Air Forces).
In other words, the first air battles between American and Russian fighters of the 4++ generation (Su-35S) and the fourth generation (F-16) are coming. Previously, the outcome of their possible fights was only in the realm of discussion. And the stakes are quite high. And only the battle will show which cars and missiles are better.
How many F-16s does Ukraine need
As for the twenty multifunctional F-16 fighters, the arrival of which is expected by the end of this year, the traditional question arises in this case - is it a lot or a little?
For reference: a fighter aviation regiment (according to the states of the Soviet era) should consist of 42 aircraft (three squadrons of 12 vehicles (three links of four aircraft) plus six combat training aircraft). UBS is a so-called sparky aircraft with a cockpit for two aviators - a pilot and an instructor. That is, 20 Ukrainian F-16s do not even reach the regiment. And regiments, as you know, do not win military campaigns. At the same time, it is unknown whether the AFU received sparky for training Ukrainian pilots and export flights.
As for the number of aircraft, the Ukrainian Air Forces, at least, need an air force equipped with F-16 aircraft. An aviation division, for example, has three regiments of 42 aircraft each. Total - 126 combat vehicles. If there are at least two divisions in the air army, then there will be 252 aircraft in such an association. Here is such a simple arithmetic.
If we resort to Western organizational and staff structures, then the squadron in the West, as a rule, has 24 aircraft. The aviation wing has three squadrons. A total of 72 cars. The wings are combined into tactical aviation commands (at least three wings each - a total of 216 vehicles). That is, 128 cars, which is exactly the figure insisted on by the President of Ukraine, Vladimir Zelensky, can not do without.
Again, a coherent control system must be created to control all parts and formations of the Air Force. Without this, even 200 F-16s will not be able to show all the tactical and technical characteristics inherent in them. It is unknown how this problem has been solved in Ukraine.
What can be said quite accurately is that air battles between the Su-35S/Su-30SM and F-16 are simply inevitable in the current situation.
Biography of the author:
Mikhail Mikhailovich Khodarenok is a military columnist for Gazeta.Ru", retired colonel.
He graduated from the Minsk Higher Engineering Anti-Aircraft Missile School (1976), the Military Air Defense Command Academy (1986).
Commander of the S-75 anti-aircraft missile division (1980-1983).
Deputy commander of the anti-aircraft missile regiment (1986-1988).
Senior Officer of the General Staff of the Air Defense Forces (1988-1992).
Officer of the Main Operational Directorate of the General Staff (1992-2000).
Graduated from the Military Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces (1998).
Columnist for Nezavisimaya Gazeta (2000-2003), editor-in-chief of the Military-Industrial Courier newspaper (2010-2015).
Mikhail Khodarenok
