Ukraine Just Lost Another F-16
Two of the ex-European jets have been destroyed since August
Ukraine lost a Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter and its pilot, Capt. Pavlo Ivanov, on or just before Saturday. It’s the second loss of an F-16 and pilot since the single-engine, supersonic fighter—85 of which a Belgian-Danish-Dutch-Norwegian consortium has pledged to Ukraine—entered front-line service in Ukraine back in August.
It’s heavy blow for the battered Ukrainian air force, but not a fatal one. Ukraine is losing F-16s at an annualized rate of just a few per year. And while that rate surely will increase as more of the surplus European jets arrive in Ukraine—thus exposing more airframes to risks including crashes and Russian action—the Ukrainian air force is on track to induct more than enough F-16s to sustain operations for the next few years, at least.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Trench Art to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.