{"id":106088,"date":"2024-08-01T10:55:12","date_gmt":"2024-08-01T10:55:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/01\/f-16-fighter-jets-finally-arrive-in-ukraine-heres-what-theyll-be-used-for\/"},"modified":"2024-08-01T10:55:13","modified_gmt":"2024-08-01T10:55:13","slug":"f-16-fighter-jets-finally-arrive-in-ukraine-heres-what-theyll-be-used-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/2024\/08\/01\/f-16-fighter-jets-finally-arrive-in-ukraine-heres-what-theyll-be-used-for\/","title":{"rendered":"F-16 fighter jets finally arrive in Ukraine – here’s what they’ll be used for"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The first F-16 fighter jets have been delivered to Ukraine to help in its defence against the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n

Some of the long-awaited ‘Fighting Falcon’ warplanes promised to Ukraine are now in the country, officials say, in a move that Kyiv hopes will boost its air force.<\/p>\n

The F-16s have been on Ukraine’s wishlist since the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022 due to their ability to carry out multiple types of missions.<\/p>\n

The jets are equipped with a 20mm cannon and can carry bombs, rockets and missiles.<\/p>\n

“F-16s in Ukraine. Another impossible thing turned out to be totally possible,” Lithuanian foreign minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said on X.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian pilots and ground staff have been in training with Ukraine’s Western allies for months in preparation for the arrival of the aircraft.<\/p>\n

“F-16s bring just and lasting peace closer,” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy<\/a><\/strong> said earlier this year.<\/p>\n

The Kremlin said on Thursday that Russian forces were prepared to shoot down Ukraine’s first batch of F-16 jets and the weapons will not be a “panacea” for Kyiv’s army.<\/p>\n

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\n The jets can carry out different types of combat missions. File pic: AP
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What is the F-16 Fighting Falcon?<\/strong><\/p>\n

The F-16 is built by the American defence contractor Lockheed Martin and first entered service in 1978.<\/p>\n

They can travel at speeds of up to 1,500mph and have a range of more than 2,000 miles.<\/p>\n

The jets are known for their multi-role capability and radar.<\/p>\n

They are operated by several countries other than the US, including Poland, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Denmark – some of whom have pledged to donate their aircraft to Ukraine<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

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Russia launches large-scale strikes on Ukraine<\/span>
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What impact will the F-16s have in Ukraine?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There has been speculation about how much impact the F-16s – which have been around for decades – will have in Ukraine.<\/p>\n

Their arrival comes at a time when Russia<\/a><\/strong> has been making slow, incremental gains that are putting pressure on Ukrainian forces along the frontline.<\/p>\n

The F-16s will enhance Ukraine’s military strength, especially by upgrading its air defences. But analysts say they won’t turn the tide of the war on their own.<\/p>\n

The jets will likely have three core missions, according to Federico Borsari of the Centre for European Policy Analysis in Washington.<\/p>\n

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\n An explosion after a Russian drone is shot down in Kherson, Ukraine. Pic: Reuters
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They will seek to intercept Russian missiles and drones that have relentlessly bombarded Ukraine<\/a><\/strong>, target enemy air defence systems and strike Russian troop positions and ammunition depots with air-to-ground missiles, he claimed.<\/p>\n

“They will be able to affect some of the dynamics (of the war),” Mr Borsari said.<\/p>\n

Commanding the skies is an essential part of a war’s ground campaign, as planes offer air cover to troops.<\/p>\n

But supporting Ukrainian troop movements on the front line with ground attacks may be too risky for the F-16s, given Russia’s sophisticated air defence systems.<\/p>\n

However, the F-16s will have a psychological effect on Russian pilots as well as providing a morale boost for Ukraine’s defenders.<\/p>\n

Read more:
Trump and Zelenskyy have ‘very good phone call’<\/a>
Zelenskyy asks Starmer to ‘show leadership’ on Ukraine<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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How will Russia react?<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s likely that President Vladimir Putin<\/a><\/strong> will savour the image of destroying F-16s from NATO countries – something Russia has never done before.<\/p>\n

Kremlin forces will likely try to destroy the F-16s on the ground with long-range missiles. They have already been targeting Ukraine’s limited number of suitable airfields.<\/p>\n

The Ukrainians will need to keep the F-16s in hardened hangars, disperse them between various locations, be ready to take off quickly in the event of an air raid warning and use decoy model aircraft, analysts say.<\/p>\n

In the air, the Ukrainian F-16s will be up against Russia’s formidable S-300 and S-400 mobile surface-to-air missile systems that can target multiple aircraft at a time.<\/p>\n

Ukrainian forces have spent months seeking out, targeting and destroying Russian air defences in preparation for the arrival of the F-16s.<\/p>\n

Russia’s Su-35 fighter jet will be one of the biggest threats to the F-16, Mr Borsari said. It has a long-range radar that allows it to track and engage up to eight targets at a time across a wide area.<\/p>\n

Even so, the Russians are aware that they’ll be up against a more formidable aircraft than they have met so far in the war and will likely adopt a more careful approach.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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The first F-16 fighter jets have been delivered to Ukraine to help in its defence against the Russian invasion. Some of the long-awaited ‘Fighting Falcon’ warplanes promised to Ukraine are now in the country, officials say, in a move that Kyiv hopes will boost its air force. The F-16s have been on Ukraine’s wishlist since […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":106089,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/e3.365dm.com\/24\/07\/768x432\/skynews-f-16-ukraine_6623107.jpg?20240710153708","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[8239,44205,72,6828,671,8313,39051,1130],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106088"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=106088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":106090,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/106088\/revisions\/106090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/106089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=106088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=106088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.talkwithrattan.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=106088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}