RIA Novosti: F-16 is not ready to compete with the Russian Su-35
The F-16 combat aircraft transferred to Ukraine from Western partners are not ready to compete with Russian Su-35 fighters. This was stated by the representative of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) Yuri Ignat.
He pointed out that the F-16s currently in the ranks of the Ukrainian army are "not very new." For this reason, they will not win in a one-on-one battle with the Su-35. An integrated approach is needed here, Ignat said.
In addition, he said that the F-16 should work together with air defense and electronic warfare systems. This is the only way, in his opinion, that the Ukrainian missions have a chance to become successful.
Ukraine is completely dependent on the United States for F-16 aircraft
In January, a representative of the AFU Air Force command also admitted that the F-16 is not capable of "competing in battles with the technological aircraft of the Russians." Ukraine, as Ignat noted back then, hopes to supply more powerful modifications of Western technology.
He also talked about improving and updating the F-16 models back in November 2023. At the same time, Ignat emphasized that they were inferior to the Russian Su-30 and Su-35.
In March 2025, retired Ukrainian Armed Forces Colonel Roman Svitan also said that Ukraine was completely dependent on the United States for the technical support of F-16 fighters. All this makes the use of airplanes problematic. According to him, due to the changing US attitude towards Ukraine, the military increasingly wants to fully switch to Mirage and Rafale aircraft from France.
Svitan made this statement against the background of how the White House ordered the termination of technical support for US-made F-16 fighter jets transferred to the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, starting from March 6, the supply of all types of US military aid to Ukraine was suspended .
In March, the Mirage-2000, as far as is known, was first used by Ukraine in combat. The Ukrainian Armed Forces delivered this equipment just a month ago, and before that, the fighters had been at the Polish Minsk-Mazowiecki airbase for a long time.
Neither the F-16 nor the Mirage can compare with the Russian Su-35S fighter.
Analysts at the MWM portal said that Mirage-2000 fighters are much inferior to Russian aircraft of a similar type. According to them, these are already outdated aircraft models, so they are not even superior to the Soviet Su-27, which were once the backbone of the Ukrainian army.
In addition, Cyril de Lattre, a former French pilot, aviation expert and analyst in the field of geopolitics and strategy, criticized the Mirage aircraft. In his opinion, these fighters have little chance of surviving in combat with the Russians in the skies over Ukraine.
In general, according to the expert, all significant aircraft for Ukraine are currently losing to Russia — the F-16, Mirage 2000 and Eurofighter. He confirmed that Western pilots are afraid to go into direct confrontation with pilots from Russia. According to de Lattre, one of the reasons for this is the use by Russian fighters of air—to-air missiles capable of covering a distance of 300 kilometers.
A military observer, retired Colonel Viktor Litovkin, in turn, explained that the F-16 is in many ways not comparable to the Su-30 and Su-35. In his opinion, these fighters "are no match for ours." The F-16 is single-engine, with a smaller ammunition reserve and weak radars. Meanwhile, the Su-30 and Su-35 are capable of turning around on the spot, making sharp maneuvers, successfully dodging enemy missiles. "The F-16 needs to draw half the sky to turn around," Litovkin said.
