Ukraine Officially Inducts the F-16s
Armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9 Sidewinder Missiles
The first pictures of F-16s with Ukrainian insignia are out. Ukrainian officials organized a small ceremony to announce the induction of coveted F-16 fighter jets into the Ukrainian Air Force.
What is the point of keeping a secret that everyone in the world already knows about? Might as well use the moment to lift Ukrainian spirits and send a message that progress, though slow, continues.
President Zelensky wrote about the long and difficult path Ukraine has had to go through to reach this point.
We are now in a new phase of development for the Air Force of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. We have done a lot to transition the Ukrainian Air Force to a new aviation standard — Western combat aviation. From the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to close the Ukrainian sky from Russian missiles and aircraft.
We have held hundreds of meetings and negotiations to strengthen the capabilities of our aviation, air defense, and Defense Forces. We often heard the word “impossible” in response, but we made possible what was our ambition, our defense need, and now — it is a reality in our sky. F-16s in Ukraine. We ensured this.
I am proud of all our guys who are skillfully mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our country. I thank our team for this result. I thank all the partners who are truly helping with the F-16s, and the first countries that accepted our request for aircraft — Denmark, the Netherlands, the United States, — and all our partners, — we value your support.
I wish our Air Force and all our warriors to feel the pride of Ukrainians in our combat aviation and to bring Ukraine the combat results that will bring our victory closer — our just peace for Ukraine.
From the time it became clear that Ukraine and a small group of European nations are pushing for the deployment of F-16s to Ukraine, I felt that Europe, rather than the United States, should bear the brunt of this substantial undertaking. The plan should be…
- Europe delivers the F-16s to Ukraine. They possess hundreds of these aircraft, so providing them would not pose a problem. This would also alleviate the financial burden on the United States, allowing them to allocate funds to other priorities.
- The United States, with its robust training capacity, trains Ukrainian pilots and also provides the advanced weapons required by the fighter jets.
So, when the officials in the Biden administration quietly worked behind the scenes to ensure that only 12 Ukrainian pilots are trained in the United States over nearly a year, I was extremely worried about the second part of the issue: Will the United States do the same with supplying the weapons needed by the F-16s?
If the Biden administration starts holding back on sending the advanced weapons needed by the F-16s, it would further curtail the potential of these fighter jets, forcing Ukraine to use them well below their potential capacity.
One handicap is already there, and the question remained if it would actually evolve into two handicaps.
A recent report by the Wall Street Journal said the Biden administration has greenlit the plan to send advanced weapons that can be carried by the F-16s to Ukraine:
The Biden administration says it will provide missiles and bombs for the American-made aircraft. WASHINGTON — The U.S. has agreed to arm dozens of F-16 jet fighters being sent to Ukraine with American-made missiles and other advanced weapons, addressing a longstanding question about the Western aircraft.
As has been the case with the Biden administration, once they cross the fear threshold, they generally handle the situation reasonably well. They balked at sending HIMARS (artillery and missile launchers), but after sending the first batch in July 2022, they seem perfectly fine maintaining the number of HIMARS systems in Ukraine’s possession. Ukraine also did a great job of protecting these systems from Russian attacks.
The situation has been the same with the lange range ATACMS missiles. Initially, there was significant worry, but after sending the first big batch of ATACMS in February this year, the rate of usage by Ukraine indicates that the United States is indeed supporting Ukraine with a reasonable number of missiles. Since April this year, Ukraine continues to pummel Russian air-defense in Crimea and occupied territories.
So, it is good news that the United States has decided to send advanced weapons for F-16s. There are two key missiles that the United States can keep sending.
- AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missile
- AIM-120 AMRAAM
The AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder missile can be used by the F-16s for air-to-air combat. It has a range of up to 35 km and costs around $400,000 per missile. The best part is it can also be used by the short-range NASAMS air defense systems, which Ukraine already uses. The current production rate is 1,400 units per year.
The AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) is a beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missile. It has a range of 32 km to 145 km and can travel at a speed of Mach 4. It also features active radar homing, allowing the AMRAAM to guide itself to the target once it gets close enough, making it a fire-and-forget missile. The current production rate is around 1,200 units per year.
Obviously, there will be a queue for these weapons. The Biden administration has already made the decision to prioritize weapons supply for Ukraine over sending weapons to its other clients. At more than 100 units each per month, the production capacity is at a reasonable rate to send these weapons to Ukraine on a sustained basis.
These two missiles will allow Ukraine to use the F-16s as extremely effective short- to medium-range defensive weapons. They can counter cruise missiles and push the Russian fighter jets away from the frontlines.
I think Ukraine is going to mix things up. I don’t think they will make bringing down the Russian fighter jets a top priority at this stage, but they will definitely let the Russian pilots know that they are going to be coming for them at the time and place of their choosing.
I hope Ukraine’s first batch of F-16s is a reasonable number. They can make a huge statement when they go up against the Russian Sukhoi jets. Expect the pace of Russian jets falling from the sky to slowly increase.
Thanks for reading. Making critical information on Ukraine accessible is one way to fight misinformation. That’s why I’ve made 221 stories free to the public in 2024, including this one.
