There is no indication that the F-16s have yet arrived in Ukraine, although Kyiv-based aviation expert Anatoliy Khrapchynsky suggests Russian forces are “probing” Ukrainian airfields because they believe they might be.
Only this month US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the transfer of F-16s was already under way from Denmark and the Netherlands.
Some 65 F-16s have been pledged by Nato countries.
When in theatre they will roughly double the number of fighter jets currently at Ukraine’s disposal, which are all Soviet-era MiG-29s and Su-27s.
For Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky they cannot come a moment too soon, after an 18-month wait.
He had originally opened for twice as many as the 65 he has been promised, such is the need for fighter aircraft to carry out key types of mission:
- Suppression of Enemy Air Defences- SEAD missions - the military is desperate to take out Russia’s surface to air missile systems
- Air Interdiction operations, to disrupt, delay or destroy Russia’s ground forces
- Defensive Counter Air (DCA), to protect Ukrainian territory from Russian aircraft and missiles.
These defensive missions are for the moment perhaps the most important.
If Ukraine can protect its F-16s on the ground, the hope is that they could play an important part in pushing back the Russian aircraft to a point where the glide bombs can no longer target Ukrainian ground forces.
The F-16s would work alongside the limited number of Western-supplied surface to air missile systems such as Patriot and NASAMS which are already on the ground.
The F-16s won’t necessarily turn the tide of the war, but they will have a significant impact in attacks on the ground and in the air.https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0kr240gd18o
