Ukraine Is Wasting Its F-16s
Kyiv's risky air-defense methods have cost it four F-16s ... and three pilots
Ukraine lost another Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter on Sunday—its fourth since the first of the supersonic F-16s, donated by a Belgian-Danish-Dutch-Norwegian consortium, arrived in Ukraine in August.
The F-16 crashed as its pilot, 32-year-old 1st Class Pilot Lt. Col. Maksym Ustymenko, chased down Russian drones during a massive air raid on Ukrainian cities Saturday night and Sunday morning.
Ustymenko shot down seven targets. It seems the blast from the last hit also damaged his F-16. “Maksym did everything he could to steer the aircraft away from a populated area,” the Ukrainian air force reported. “He didn’t have time to eject.”
Ukraine has 37 F-16s left. Another 46 should reach Ukraine in the coming years. In addition to flying air-defense sorties, the F-16s lob precision glide-bombs at Russian forces and use their powerful jammers to protect other Ukrainian warplanes.
The air force isn’t about to run out of F-16s, but that doesn’t mean it should squander the nimble, single-engine jets. And yes, it’s a waste for Ukraine to deploy the multi-mission, multi-million-dollar F-16s for point defense against Russian drones.
Most egregiously, it’s a waste of F-16 pilots.
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