Ukrainian Armed Forces received means of delivering tactical nuclear weapons - Knutov
American F-16 fighter jets, information about whose deployment to Ukraine appeared yesterday , are capable of carrying weapons of mass destruction.
This was stated by military analyst and director of the Air Defense Forces Museum, retired Colonel Yuri Knutov, as reported by PolitNavigator correspondent.
“The F-16 aircraft are a platform that is capable of carrying two JASSM cruise missiles, which are in some ways analogous to the British Storm Shadow cruise missiles, only with a range of about 400 kilometers. In addition, they can carry Harpoon anti-ship missiles and AGM-88 HARM anti-radar missiles.
Moreover, the F-16C, F-16D and F-16MLO modification aircraft are capable of carrying B61 tactical nuclear bombs. That is, we can say that delivery systems for tactical nuclear weapons have been delivered to Ukraine, which raises extreme concerns,” Knutov told Moskovsky Komsomolets.
At the same time, he says that the Russian army has modern weapons that will allow them to effectively destroy these aircraft.
“Our Su-35 and this combination of A-50 flying radars and S-400 anti-aircraft systems will allow us to destroy American aircraft quite effectively. The A-50 will see them quite well due to the fact that on the F-16 the radars of the sighting system are strong emitters.
I repeat, modifications less noticeable in terms of radar were not supplied to Ukraine. Countries such as the Emirates and Saudi Arabia can afford it. Ukraine will be supplied with vehicles that are being removed from service in the Netherlands and Belgium, and thus the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ fleet will be replenished,” the expert believes.
According to him, F-16s were also shot down by older air defense systems.
“At one time, Israel bought a two-seat tactical fighter F-16 Sufa from the Americans. All the electronics there are Israeli, ultra-modern, and in a number of respects they are superior to American equipment. About five years ago, an F-16 fired at Syria, and the Syrians used our old S-200 complex against it.
Such air defense systems have been in Syria since 1981. We have modernized it several times, but in any case this system is quite old. Of these complexes, one F-16 was shot down, and the second was damaged. Therefore, I think that our modern digital S-400 systems, which are many times superior in capabilities to the Soviet-developed S-200, will, in general, cope with the F-16, too,” Knutov believes.
The Ukrainian Armed Forces have received tactical nuclear weapons delivery systems, according to Knutov.