{"id":465,"date":"2024-02-29T11:38:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-29T11:38:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dummy.xtemos.com\/woodmart2\/elementor\/?p=465"},"modified":"2024-04-02T20:39:30","modified_gmt":"2024-04-02T20:39:30","slug":"diva-jets-why-sensitive-f-16s-will-be-hard-work-for-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/2024\/02\/29\/diva-jets-why-sensitive-f-16s-will-be-hard-work-for-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Diva jets: Why \u2018sensitive\u2019 F-16s will be hard work for Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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The F-16s will both bulk up Ukraine's air force and give it much more powerful capabilities against its Russian enemies | John Thys\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The multi-role Western fighters will help Ukraine even the odds but it won\u2019t be easy to use the \u201chigh maintenance\u201d jets in wartime.<\/p>

KYIV \u00ad\u2014 Ukraine is preparing for the arrival of General Dynamics\u00a0F-16\u00a0Fighting Falcon jets in the next months \u2014 but incorporating the single-engine supersonic\u00a0fighter into its arsenal will take more than training pilots.<\/p>

More than 60 F-16s are being offered by Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium, while a multinational coalition is currently training pilots and crews. The jets are a response to pleas from Kyiv to help even the odds against the Russian air force in the skies over Ukraine.<\/p>

But getting the fighters flying will be hugely difficult. The bases will be prime targets for Russian attack, the planes themselves will be marked by Russian air defense systems, repairing them will be a challenge and even using unprepared runways could sabotage the delicate aircraft.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Tom Richter, a former U.S. Marine pilot who has flown the F-16 when in the National Guard, said the plane is \u201ca sensitive beast\u201d compared to the Soviet-era MiG and Sukhoi jets the Ukrainians are used to flying and maintaining.<\/p>

\u201cIf you ever walked up and put your hands on a MiG-29 at an air show and then walked right over and put your hands on an F-16, you can feel just from the outside how the F-16 is highly engineered. It is a prima donna, and it is very sensitive and needs high maintenance,\u201d said Richter, who used the call sign T-Bone. The Soviet planes are more \u201crough and tumble\u201d and can fly off poorly maintained airfields, and need less maintenance.<\/p>

In a different situation, Ukraine would build modern bases and runways to host the jets, but that's not possible during the war.<\/p>

\"Falcons indeed need some adaptation \u2014 this is the preparation of the runways because the landing gear is more delicate in the MiGs, the wheels are small, the air intakes are low to the strip, there may be a danger of swallowing objects. But all this can be solved. There are risks for all aviation,\u201d Yuriy Ihnat, spokesperson of the Ukrainian air force, told POLITICO.<\/p>

That care will extend to deploying teams with sealant to cover cracks and crevices or uneven concrete on runways as close to the frontline as possible to avoid making an obvious target out of just a few well-maintained sites, said Justin Bronk with the Royal United Services Institute think tank. \u00a0<\/p>

\u201cFor a start, runways and taxi routes at multiple sites will need to be smooth and constantly checked for debris given how susceptible the low-slung, single-engine F-16s are to ground debris compared to MiG-29s,\u201d he said.<\/p>

\u00a0<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Soviet-era planes<\/h3>

That's a drastic change from the jets the Ukrainians are currently flying.<\/p>

At the beginning of 2022, Ukraine had 71 Su-27 and MiG-29 fighters, 14 Su-24M bombers, and 31 Su-25 attack aircraft, according\u00a0to the annual Military Balance report<\/a>\u00a0by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.<\/p><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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Ukraine started 2022 with 14 Su-24M bombers | Genya Savilov\/AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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The 2024 report says Ukraine has 78 combat capable aircraft. In the third year of the war, Russia has 1,169 such aircraft.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>

Since the start of the invasion, Slovakia and Poland have\u00a0also transfered<\/a>\u00a0about 33 MiG-29 fighter jets to Ukraine \u2014 many with updated avionics and weapons to bring them up to NATO standards.<\/p>

The F-16s, in service with Western air forces for 45 years, will both bulk up Ukraine's air force and give it much more powerful capabilities against its Russian enemies.<\/p>

\u201cThe F-16 will significantly improve the effectiveness of our aviation. A pilot will be able to control missiles from the air, determining the target. He can receive real intelligence in a combat environment and make appropriate decisions about hitting targets. Plus, it will be possible to use air-to-air missiles. Which can fly up to 180 kilometers,\u201d Ihnat said.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

That will prove crucial in battlefields where Ukraine's soldiers are being pummelled by Russian air-dropped glide bombs and missiles.<\/p>

The first planes should show up by this summer, the Danish defense ministry\u00a0said<\/a>.<\/p>

\"It is difficult to set a fixed timetable for the donation of F-16 fighter jets, because there are several conditions that must be met in order for Ukraine to use the donated aircraft,\u201d Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen said, highlighting the adaptation that needs to happen before the jets can fly from Ukrainian airfields.<\/p>

Preparing the ground<\/h3>

There\u2019s the mundane requirement to make sure everything from toolkits to spare parts and stands is in place \u2014 along with equipment to safely manage hydrazine, a highly flammable liquid used to power the F-16s emergency backup system.<\/p>

While Ukrainian pilots and crews are undergoing training to fly and maintain F-16s, it's almost certain that highly-specialized Western contractors will also need to be in the country to oversee work, said Bronk from RUSI.<\/p>

Kyiv's soldiers need to learn how to repair, maintain, and hide the Falcons from Russian radars, spies, and satellites. \u201cOur technicians and aviation engineers are also currently being trained in the West alongside our pilots. They are the base of our land personnel,\u201d Ihnat said.<\/p><\/div><\/div>

Ihnat argued that F-16s are easier, more modern and automated than MiGs. \u201cIt is like a constructor jet. You can just take out one broken element and send it for repairs,\u201d he said, adding: \u201cIt is the most common jet in the world. One, it is easy to maintain. Two, it can perform the tasks that Ukraine needs at this stage of the war.\"<\/p>

That's echoed by the troops being trained on the airplanes.<\/p>

Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's Initiative United 24\u00a0published a video<\/a>\u00a0of Ukrainian pilots and engineers completing training in Denmark.<\/p>

\u201cInitially when we first got acquainted with the system it seemed incomprehensible to us and unrealistic to integrate into Ukrainian reality. But now I understand that it simplifies the work a lot, saves time, and worth us moving forward. If we want to develop as a country, as an air force,\u201d said Ukrainian technician identified as Ihor.<\/p>

The pilots are also keen to get flying.<\/p>

\u201cIt is really super fun jet to fly. The F-16 is more agile. It feels like the jet wants you to fly it more aggressively,\u201d said a Ukrainian pilot with the call-sign Moonfish.<\/p>

This article has been updated to clarify that Tom Richter flew the F-16 in the National Guard.<\/em><\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The F-16s will both bulk up Ukraine’s air force and give it much more powerful capabilities against its Russian enemies<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9522,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=465"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9523,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/465\/revisions\/9523"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/testv51.demowebsitelinks.com\/CodeOne\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}