American F-16s Are Now Hunting In Ukraine.

F-16 Shot Down A Russian Su-34.

(source)

It is rather unusual to hear Russian war bloggers announce not-so-positive information when they speak about their military. But this is exactly what they just did. According to their data, American F-16s that were delivered to Ukraine are now being used against Russian aviation there in Ukraine.

And for the first time, Ukraine has reportedly shot down a Russian fighter jet in the Ukrainian-controlled regions, with an F-16 fighter jet. Ukrainians also shared this. However, the fact that Russian war bloggers are now admitting this, brings more assurance to the claims. Here are the direct words the Russian supporter used on their channel:

Our Su-34 was shot down. The crew was killed. The airplane was shot down while dropping glide bombs, about 50 km from the front line.

Funny enough, the pro-Russia Indian news agencies even shared this but used the word “rumors” as an excuse, of course. I wonder how can they keep their support after Russia draws in Indian people to fight for Russia, illegally.

It wasn’t your regular Su-25 that was shot down that Russia primarily began using, but one of the most modern fighter jets in Russian aviation. I believe the training that Ukrainian pilots received in foreign European countries is paying off. However, there’s been virtually no news over the past month about F-16 usage, which is rather strange.

Ukraine has likely received around 10–20 such fighter jets, but no reports of them being used against enemy aviation have been shared, before this. The Russian blogger continued with his remarks:

Our Su-34 was shot down apparently by an F-16, which was over enemy-controlled territory (Shared on Telegram officially)

There were some unofficial reports before that Ukraine used the F-16s around the Crimea region. Russia was reportedly trying to launch attacks on Ukrainian oil platforms using its fighter jets. And it just so happened, that one Russian fighter jet eventually went missing, and did not return to its air base. Some individuals speculated that it was an F-16 who shot the Russian plane, but very little is known about this incident.

The Russian war-blogger continued:

There will be more such losses soon. NATO has released F-16s for hunting. Now there will be less FABs flying. Consequently, the losses of our infantry will increase. (Shared on Telegram, officially)

Russian fighter jets have one main purpose in Ukraine, and it is no longer to provide the infantry with cover, but rather to drop glide bombs on the positions of Ukrainian troops. Russia has many heavy glide bombs available, some of which are FAB-5000s, which weigh 5 tons.

In Vuhledar, Russia has dropped a FAB-3000 before, and a huge part of the city was decimated. The explosion was so powerful, that numerous neighborhoods could have been destroyed. Russia began using these glide bombs more consistently over the past months, as it brings results.

Just dropping a single alike glide bomb directly on Ukrainian trenches would leave very few survivors, and eventually, the entire frontline would soon collapse, as it happened before.

In reality, Ukraine keeps certain information classified, as to not spark Russian interest or response. Which is why I believe Ukraine is pretty much silent on the F-16s.

However, according to the data of the Russian bloggers, Ukraine began deploying its F-16s for combat usage as of now. This would explain why Ukraine targeted and destroyed at least two main radar systems of the Russian army this month.

One of these was the Nebo-M radar system which has a range of up to around 4000 kilometers.

To provide a rather better comprehension, here is what the geopolitical analyst, Irina Tsukerman, said about the Su-34s:

Russia is on the offensive in Ukraine, but this incident could be seen as a serious setback because the Su-34 are the planes Russia uses to clear the way and destroy Ukrainian infrastructure

This is a big deal in the end. Russia is very uncertain about deploying its Su-34s over Ukraine, as they are very expensive planes. Ukrainian air defense systems had already shot down a great deal of these planes before.

Likely, the pilot of the Su-34 did not expect any opposition from Ukraine’s aviation, so he felt confident, based on his previous experiences in dropping glide bombs.

Further, Ukraine is said to receive around 100 F-16s in total. And, a lot of them will come from Greece. However, they won’t be in their best shape, but still fully functional.

I do believe the F-16s have an upper hand in Ukraine, as they can be equipped with the most modern missiles in US inventory, some of which are “anti-radiation” missiles that destroy air defense and radar systems.

And since they are equipped with anti-jamming equipment, which is critical in today’s conflicts, they should perform much better against Russian tactics, which composes of using jammers.

I think we could see more cases of F-16s operating and engaging the Russian targets over the next months. They are not meant to be stored as trophies anyway. I also remember hearing Russian individuals glorifying their Su-34s, and Su-35s as they can reach higher speeds than F-16s can. However, this did not help the Su-34 after all.

In the end, the superior pilot wins. Previously, a Ukrainian pilot, nicknamed “Ghost of Kyiv”, destroyed over a dozen Russian fighter jets in his MiG airplane, which reaches much lesser speeds than Russian modern-day fighters.

I doubt the capabilities of Russian pilots, as much as I doubt their county’s overall choosing of weapons for manufacturing.

[embed]Get an email whenever That Guy, Noah publishes. Get an email whenever That Guy, Noah publishes. By signing up, you will create a Medium account if you don't already…medium.com