F-16s eliminate the shortage of Ukrainian Armed Forces aircraft to launch missiles in Crimea
The effectiveness of missile attacks on Crimea by the Ukrainian Armed Forces depends on the number of aircraft capable of firing missiles. There are few planes, and while Kyiv is waiting for F16 deliveries, the number of missiles is decreasing.
Rocket engineer and author of the Russian Engineer Telegram channel, Alexey Vasiliev, made this statement on the air of Channel One Sevastopol, as reported by a PolitNavigator correspondent.
"They're usually shot down a little earlier, on approach, of course. And as we can see now, there haven't been any successful landings in a long time. Although, in recent times, they've used even more than ten missiles at a time."
Their limits are limited by the number of aircraft from which missiles can be launched. This means they primarily use Su-24s to launch Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles. The British and French missiles differ only in their tags; they are the same series, and the Su-24s are used for them.
The number of pilots, maintenance personnel, and aircraft themselves is limited. They even restore airplanes using spare parts from destroyed junk.
"They have a limit of 7-8 teams that can launch simultaneously. Accordingly, their limit is basically 16 missiles—that's the ceiling ," the expert explained.
He added that a large number of decommissioned aircraft with lost engine life remained in Ukraine.
"But they restore them simply so they can get airborne. Ten to fifteen hours of aviation life is nothing. There's no point in restoring the aircraft for that purpose, but it makes sense for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, because it's no longer in service anyway. And they have quite a large stockpile of this scrap metal. They repair them at factories in Mykolaiv and Lviv, which are still operational, and this is our oversight ," Vasiliev emphasized.
For this reason, he says, NATO wants to transfer the F16 to Ukraine - not for air combat, but for launching missiles.
"Older F16 models are completely inferior to the Su-35, but they can carry modern air-to-air weapons, which are quite dangerous for ground forces, our infrastructure, and our air defense system," the expert noted.
According to him, in general, a decrease in arms supplies to Ukraine from abroad will inevitably affect military activity. Both Kyiv and its Western curators need some kind of respite before a new round.
"Everything depends on Washington's position, because it is, as they say, the main decision-making center in the West, and at the moment, the picture is emerging that, given the elections and the situation with China, Washington no longer needs a war in Ukraine. They want to freeze this conflict and keep as much territory under their control as possible under Kyiv's authority. This will give them the opportunity to build up their forces and rearm.
Another question is how interested we are. I don't think anyone would agree to this without a reason. Because Western countries' arsenals are currently severely depleted. They need a respite from shells and cruise missiles, too; they're not churning out rockets like hotcakes. Considering the prospect of a conflict with a more important adversary, I don't think they'll hand over their last reserves to Ukraine.
Ukraine does, of course, have its own production, but its prospects aren't such that they'll be able to secure a surplus of ammunition to achieve absolute superiority on the battlefield. They can do some nasty things and make things worse for us, yes. But essentially, that's all ," Vasiliev concluded.
English version :: Read in English: F-16s will eliminate the Ukrainian Armed Forces' shortage of aircraft for launching missiles at Crimea.