Warplanes: Trouble for American Jets in Ukraine
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Ezoic
September 17, 2024: Ukraine lost one its new F-16 fighters on August 26. It crashed, apparently because of an error by one of the Ukrainian pilots who are still learning how to operate the new, for Ukraine, F-16s. The deceased pilot, Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes, was a veteran pilot and a major supporter of F-16s for Ukraine. He was one of the first Ukrainian pilots trained to fly F-16s. This training took place in Denmark.
At the same time, Ukrainian leaders revealed that several F-16s and their Ukrainian pilots had already been used to shoot down incoming Russian missiles. While Ukraine has been successful using NATO supplied anti-missile systems, they wanted F-16s. These aircraft were superior to the Russian designed aircraft Ukraine had long been using. The F-16s were more effective and there were a larger number of special bombs and missiles these aircraft could use. Ukraine is short of anti-aircraft missiles and systems, and so needs F-16s for their defensive interception capabilities as well as offensive air superiority and ground missions.
Ukraine wants 130 F-16s but so far NATO countries have pledged only 91 of them and, as of September, only 20 were in Ukraine. A crucial bottleneck is how quickly Ukrainian F-16 pilots can be trained.
https://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htairfo/articles/202409170404.aspx#google_vignette&gsc.tab=0
