February 12, 2025:
Currently Ukraine has about a dozen F-16 fighters in service. Eventually they will have more than sixty but it takes time to train pilots and maintainers and prepare air bases for them to operate from.
The F-16s have some unique assignments in Ukraine. Because the air defenses on both sides are so robust, no one has air superiority and keep their aircraft out of range of enemy air defense systems. The F-16s are most useful as another air defense weapon to destroy Russian cruise missile attacks. One F-16 destroyed six of these missiles in one sortie during December 2024, which might make its pilot an ace depending on the definition of ace which historically meant downing five fighter aircraft. .
The F-16s have proved invaluable as a last line of defense against cruise missiles that got past the air defenses. The Russian style of air control has jet fighters operating under the orders of ground controllers. Ukraine uses the more flexible Western method, where pilots are briefed before takeoff on where to go and what to attack. After that it’s the pilot’s choice when and how he carries out these attacks.
Ukrainian pilots found the F-16s easier to operate than the Russian designed aircraft they previously used. The F-16s are more reliable and as they are equipped with more of the NATO standard aircraft electronics, pilots find they can detect and destroy targets much more quickly. This ability to operate autonomously means that Russian jamming efforts have little impact.
Once more the war in Ukraine revealed major changes in how wars are fought, this time in the air. The extensive use of drones is more effective than manned aircraft. With drones you can afford to take heavy losses to reach a target. F-16s cost about $50 million each. Average long-range drone cost is about a thousand dollars. Fifty thousand drones can inflict a lot more damage than an F-16 and don’t put pilots at risk.
Air defense systems have become cheaper, more numerous and more effective. Against drones the air defenses are usually using a missile costing from a few hundred thousand dollars to a few million to take down one drone that cost, at most, a few thousand dollars to build. Both Ukraine and Russia are developing drones that intercept and destroy other drones. If the war in Ukraine has demonstrated one thing, it’s that the widespread use of inexpensive drones have changed air ground and naval warfare.