Two and a half years after the start of the Russian invasion, Ukraine has officially joined the F-16 warplane club. This week, President Volodymyr Zelensky The Ukrainian Air Force has presented the first units, which were loaned by the Netherlands and Denmark with the authorization of the United States. From now on, the Ukrainian Air Force faces the challenge of training new pilots and maintenance personnel and, above all, of keeping the fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin intact while they are on the ground. The F-16s are now Russia’s main targets, as was evident on Monday during an attack by Moscow against one of the airfields in Ukraine. likely to be used for the take-off of these fourth-generation devices.
The arrival of F-16s is happening in dribs and drabs. The reason is not the lack of fighters donated by the Western coalition, but the difficulty of training experienced Ukrainian pilots. The basic course for an F-16 lasts approximately nine months. and is the first step towards integration into operational units and advanced training in combat tactics. According to the US Air Force, during this period the pilot undergoes 37 weeks of intensive training, with 70 hours of flight time in 59 missions, 245 hours of academic instruction and 69 hours of training in flight simulators.
The training ends with a Red Flag exercisewhich simulates ten combat missions under realistic conditions with combat threats in multiple scenarios.
During the basic course, Pilots learn to operate the 20mm cannon, AIM-9 and AIM-120 air-to-air missilesand Paveway laser-guided bombs, as well as JDAM munitions. They also become familiar with advanced technologies such as the JHMCS helmet-mounted display and night vision goggles.
But all this is not enough for the pilot to obtain the high level of experience necessary to fly an F-16 using all its resources. Several experts consider that It could probably take several years before the pilot can fully exploit the capabilities of the aircraft.
What the “Ukrainian” F-16s have and don’t have
The photographs released by the Ukrainian Air Force show that the F-16s supplied to kyiv are equipped with AIM-9M and AIM-120 AMRAAM ammunition. By using the standard NATO architecture, US aircraft in Ukraine can use most of the air-launched weapons available in the NATO inventorysuch as Ukraine’s JDAM-ER, a low-cost kit built by Boeing that turns free-fall bombs into precision-guided bombs thanks to a built-in GPS. They can also carry GBU-39/B small diameter bombs and ADM-160 air-launched miniature decoys.
Pilots also wear the helmet-mounted display system, which provides a significant increase in pilots’ situational awareness. F-16s are also equipped with the self-defense systems Pylon Integrated Dispensing System Pluswhich include missile approach warning sensors and provide a near-spherical envelope to detect incoming missile threats, explains expert Tyer Rogoway.
However, according to this expert in The War Zone, the “Ukrainian” F-16s lack active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, which are equipped with most new production fighters and many older F-16s that have undergone an upgrade.
While the F-16s are not a magic wand to overcome Ukraine’s aviation problems, They do represent a revolutionary improvement in combat capabilities. which will provide more and more powerful weapons and tactics for the overall defense of Ukraine.