Posted on 08/30/2024 8:56:20 AM PDT by delta7
Ukraine Lost 15% Of The F-16s They Had💥Karlivka And Synkivka Have Fallen.
Seems the Western Wonder Weapons will, as Vlad said, burn like all the rest.
Why don’t they give those Ukrainian pilots enough training so that they don’t “fly into the ground?” All the world knows that all the Russians have to fight with is shovels and nukes. There is no way that a Russian missile could take out an F-16. Now way.
Expect more bad news of Ukrainian pilot error.
Comrade, come down. It’s war, not a video game. The air is contested and long range damage is expected too. Remember enemy fighters? Strafing Allied airfields? Flak?
The enemy has a say in how the war goes too. At least the Ukraine now is contesting the air supremacy of the Russians.
20 F-16s with three down and 17 more to go.
I suspect they’ll stop after they lose 10 or so, pilots will be pretty reluctant at that point, maybe they pull them off the line, hide them away some place for later...
So far, Ukraine has only received six F-16s. Reportedly, they are supposed to receive 18 more by year’s end.
If it’s true they have lost three of the six, then the loss is 50%, not 15%.
>> Why don’t they give those Ukrainian pilots enough training so that they don’t “fly into the ground?”
Are you sure the pilots are Ukies? ;-)
The F16 was first flown half a century ago, 1974.
For perspective half a century before 1974 the Army Air Force was still using biplanes.
Its war. How many were supplied by the US? 0
The US Air Force currently retains close to 1,200 F-16s in active service - slightly more than half of their total inventory. Most of the inactive aircraft were either lost due to attrition (more than 400 airframes), or where placed in storage in the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB (more than 300 airframes).
This isn’t a Ukranian specific problem - the F-16 has problems that most older fighter designs do in the modern battlespace, plus a couple more.
1. The F-16 is not a very stealthy platform and it does not have any sort of signature reduction beyond the composite fuselage. Unfortunately, this means that just like the Russian MiG-29s and Su-27s, it is very vulnerable to modern anti-air munitions. It is easily seen in the visible and IR spectrum and these days, if you have the right weapons (cheap and plentiful) you can shoot it. While the radar signature isn’t too bad, the IR signature is HUGE so it can be easily tracked by IR missiles. It also has zero armor, unlike some Russian/former Soviet craft so the survivability after taking AAA is not great.
2. Since the Ukrainians have no AWACS support, the F-16 has to hunt down targets by itself, which usually involves utilizing the onboard radar. However in the modern battlespace, if you radiate, you die, so they’re vulnerable that way.
“So far, Ukraine has only received six F-16s. Reportedly, they are supposed to receive 18 more by year’s end.”
But, Z says he needs 180. No problem, they only cost about $13 million a copy.
Mr. Blueway was in F16 maintenance USAF when they first became operational in 1980.
There was a steep learning curve for the pilots...crashes, near misses.
One F16 came back with scrub oak embedded in the nose cone.
“So far, Ukraine has only received six F-16s. Reportedly, they are supposed to receive 18 more by year’s end.”
And only 6 of their “best pilots” have been trained on the bird, with another 12 in the pipeline.
Such loss is significant, if not catastrophic.
Russian source material - need other confirmation, else just propaganda. Only one lost confirmed.
According to the interwebs, they cost anywhere from $25 million to $70 million each, depending on age, condition, upgrades, etc.
Question is, who is going to fly those 180 F-16s? Do they really think the “retired NATO pilots” Linda Graham is begging for will be lining up?
And Zelensky has been demanding 180 F-16s! Who will fly them? Anyone crazy enough to answer Linda’s pleas?
See my post here:
https://freerepublic.com/focus/news/4261212/posts?page=37#37
Good informative post. Thank you.
I’ve read that maintenance is quite something when it comes to these birds, too. If Ukrainians pilots were being rushed through “truncated training” it’s quite possible the maintenance crews were as well. Scary prospects.
....you are right in the ball park; used to work on Block 30 F-16Cs and Ds; all were made by General Dynamics in the 1987 time frame, and if I recall we were told they cost $26 million each when they came off the show-room floor at that time....not sure what the current Blocks are costing; moot point because the Air Force is not buying them anyway...don’t want no legacy airframes in TODAY’S Air Force, dontcha know!!??
The F16 was designed as a less expensive air superiority fighter to supplement the much more expensive F15. It was not designed for the air to ground role and is extremely vulnerable to ground fire. It has an add on targeting pod for the air to ground role and can hit targets accurately providing that the air defense assets are suppressed. F16s were not used in Desert Storm until the choppers and Weasels took out Saddams SAMs. Plus the Ukes are getting the older less capable models that the NATO nations were going to retire anyhow, iirc. It is a poor aircraft for a ground war. It wasn’t designed for it.
Russian source material - need other confirmation, else just propaganda. Only one lost confirmed.
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View the video and imbedded statement by UKRAINIAN news release….best part, Vlad got them on the ground, in hangars. Vlad’s intelligence is boots on the ground, that trumps satellite imagery.
As with many targets, Ukies are the ones spilling the beans. The Ukie populace ( what’s left of them-now 14-16 million in country) has had enough.
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