The long-awaited delivery of F-16s to Ukraine is on the horizon, and these advanced American-made fighters can’t come fast enough for its forces.
The Western-supplied F-16s will give Kiev’s current fleet of aging Soviet-era warplanes a major capability upgrade for critical offensive and defensive roles and augment their firepower with the right munitions.
The battle-proven Fighting Falcon has decades of experience flying in difficult, wartime environments in places like the Middle East and the Balkans. The fourth-generation fighter has amassed an impressive collection of high-risk missions over the years.
But the skies of Ukraine will be the most dangerous battlefield fighter jets have ever faced, former US military pilots told Business Insider, as the aircraft will face Russia’s advanced air defense systems and surface-to-air missiles -long range air.
Ukraine first requested F-16s from its Western partners in the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, but the US did not approve a transfer from its allies to Kiev until last summer.
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Four NATO members – Belgium, Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands – have pledged to send dozens of F-16s to Ukraine, whose pilots train in the US and Europe. The fighter jets are expected to arrive sometime this summer, reportedly as early as June.
The F-16 is a notable improvement over Ukraine’s Soviet-era aircraft fleet; at the beginning of the war, Kiev had Su-24s, Su-25s, Su-27s and MiG-29s.
Since the first F-16 prototype flew 50 years ago, the multirole fighter jet has flown missions in difficult combat environments around the world. It first achieved notable success, however, in the hands of Israeli pilots in the early 1980s.
Israeli Air Force fighter jets, including F-16s, flew in June 1982 in a Suppression of Enemy Air Defense (SEAD) campaign in Lebanon’s heavily fortified Bekaa Valley. Within hours, Israel destroyed a large number of Soviet-built, Syrian-held enemy surface-to-air missile (SAM) systems and aircraft without suffering casualties. It was a stunning tactical victory after the IDF’s heavy losses to SAM in the Yom Kippur War nine years before.
The US Air Force first flew the F-16 into combat during Operation Desert Storm in Iraq in the early 1990s. The aircraft flew more sorties than any other aircraft and was used to attack enemy airfields, missile bases and other military installations.
Later in the same decade, F-16s were sent to the Balkans for NATO’s air campaign against Yugoslavia in Operation Allied Force. There, they flew SEAD, close air support, and air counterattack missions while destroying enemy radars, fighter jets, and armored vehicles.
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