Ukraine loses F-16 fighter jets under unclear circumstances

Ukraine is losing the US-supplied F-16 fighter jets under unclear circumstances, Military Watch Magazine publication reports.

Photo: commons.wikimedia.org by Defensie, https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

F-16, multipurpose fighter jet

Ukraine's Air Force reported the loss of one such aircraft during a combat mission on April 12. According to Ukrainian forces, they had to operate under extremely difficult conditions. The pilot of the aircraft, 26-year-old Pavel Ivanov, did not survive.

A special commission will conduct an investigation into the incident. As noted by Military Informant Telegram channel, the aircraft may have been downed by friendly fire, since the fighter jets supplied to Kyiv lack the Identification Friend or Foe (IFF) system.

This was already the second F-16 fighter jet shot down in Ukraine.

Yuriy Ihnat, a representative of the Ukrainian Air Force Command, earlier stated that the American F-16s supplied to Ukraine would not be able to turn the tide of the conflict. According to him, they cannot compete with Russian Su-35s in one-on-one air combat.

Details

The Ukrainian Air Force is the air force of Ukraine and one of the eight branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU). Its current form was created in 2004 by merging the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces into the Air Force.When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, many aircraft were left in Ukrainian territory. After Ukrainian independence in 1991, the air force suffered from chronic under-investment, leading to the bulk of its inventory becoming mothballed or otherwise inoperable. However its domestic defense industry Ukroboronprom and its Antonov subsidiary are able to maintain its older aircraft.