By Olha Chepil | 2024-08-12

KYIV -- Coveted US-made F-16 fighter jets have finally reached Ukraine.

Because the planes are a priority target for the invading Russians, their delivery to Ukraine was shrouded in secrecy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy displayed the F-16s in Ukrainian skies for the first time on August 4 in Kyiv province during Air Force Day celebrations, when the F-16s flew with MiG-29s and Su-27s during a ceremony honoring military personnel.

Two other F-16s stood behind Zelenskyy as he addressed assembled journalists and military.

"We have held hundreds of meetings and negotiations to strengthen the capabilities of our aviation, to strengthen the capabilities of our air defense, and our Defense Forces. We have often heard the word 'impossible' in response, but we have made possible what was our ambition, our defense needs, and now it is actually a reality, a reality in our skies. F-16s are in Ukraine," Zelenskyy said at the ceremony.

The F-16s are already being used in combat, said Zelenskyy, but he refused to comment further. Ukraine still needs more F-16s and trained pilots, he said.

Europeans, Americans donate F-16s

On July 31 Ukraine received a first batch of 10 F-16s out of an eventual 79, the Economist reported August 4. The delivery happened a year after the United States "gave its more eager European allies the green light to send them," the Economist wrote. Ukraine expects to have 20 F-16s by the end of 2024.

"By mid-2025, there could be between 45 and 60 ... That will strengthen air defense capabilities and will help to effectively defend territory near the front," Bogdan Dolintse, an aviation analyst and member of the Ukrainian State Aviation Administration's oversight council, told Kontur.

"We hear that in addition to the Netherlands, Denmark has begun a transfer. We hope that Ukraine will get planes from Belgium and Norway this year," Dolintse said.

The leaders of the Netherlands, Denmark and the United States said in a July 10 statement that the countries were "in the process of donating" F-16s to Ukraine.

Ukrainian pilots will start flying F-16s this summer, the statement added. However, out of security concerns, the leaders omitted other details.

"Even if a transfer is already under way, they're not going to send all the planes to Ukraine at once. ... On top of that, you need more pilots than aircraft. To give Ukraine six planes, for example, you need to have 10 pilots, or better yet, 12," Konstantin Krivolap, an aviation specialist and former test engineer at Ukraine's Antonov aircraft company, told Kontur.

Each plane requires at least two pilots, said Krivolap.

But Ukraine does not say how many pilots it has in all. Training is done in several stages at different bases in Europe and the United States, and it can last for up to one year.

"It's a very long training process, and there are few pilots," Krivolap said.

'More of the occupiers will be destroyed'

Analysts are trying to forecast how the first batch of fighters will affect the war.

Thanks to the F-16s, more Russian missiles and aircraft will be shot down, Oleksandr Syrskyi, Ukraine's army chief, wrote on Facebook on August 4.

"F-16s are in Ukraine. This means that more of the occupiers will be destroyed. It means a greater number of downed missiles and aircraft used by the Russian criminals to attack Ukrainian cities," Syrskyi wrote.

Nothing much will change, the Kremlin claims.

"These deliveries will not have any significant impact on the development of events at the front," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on August 1 about the F-16s.

Ukrainian observers are confident that the F-16s will have a considerable impact on the combat zone in Ukraine but add that patience is needed. The fighters will help Ukraine greatly improve its missile defense, save shells that are in short supply for missile defense and help on the battlefield.

"It's economically pointless to use ground-launched air defense systems to shoot down Russian kamikaze drones. But when you use aircraft, you can destroy them quite quickly and cheaply," Dolintse said.

Eliminating Russian targets

Alexander Kovalenko of Odesa, a military and political correspondent at InfoResist, said the Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM) as something now available to Ukraine.

"F-16s support a broad range of weapons, including AIM-120 AMRAAMs ... the latest versions of which have a kill range of 150km to 180km," Kovalenko told Kontur.

"These missiles will be able to shoot down a Russian tactical aircraft even before it flies to the spot where it launches its glide bomb."

That hope will come true if Ukraine receives the latest version of the AIM-120 AMRAAM with all its features, said Kovalenko.

Crimea is another venue where F-16s could wreak havoc on Russian arms.

The planes destroy land and sea targets as effectively as they destroy air targets.

After sinking or disabling a third of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, the Ukrainian military is systematically annihilating Russia's air defense system in Crimea.

"It's possible that in 2025 F-16s will be distributed and reinforced behind each staging ground -- the combat zones -- but for now this multirole fighter will be used as carefully, selectively and precisely as possible," Kovalenko said.