A month ago Ukraine received its first batch of long-anticipated F-16 jets. Six aircraft previously flown by Denmark.
On August 26 they flew their first combat mission during a large aerial Russian strike combining cruise missiles, ballistic missiles, and long-range drones.
The August 26 strike was according to the Ukrainians the largest of the war so far using 127 missiles and 109 drones targeting installations across the country.
At least some of the F-16s took to the air on interception duty trying to shoot down some of the cruise missiles and drones over Western Ukraine.
It later became known the mission one F-16 with pilot was lost.
The death of the pilot became known first (leading many to believe he may have been killed on the ground), but a day later the loss of the aircraft was made public as well.
According to an initial American report the loss occurred due to “pilot error” during the mission.
However, a Ukrainian MP disputed this version. She reported she had sources telling her the plane was lost in a friendly fire incident, brought down by a Patriot battery.
This caused the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force to launch into a vicious attack on her. He did not dispute her version, but claimed she was aiding the enemy.
Hours later the Air Force chief was fired by Zelensky. (Ie it seems he was fired for his attempt of a public lynching of the MP, rather than the loss of the F-16 pilot.)
The MP in question, Mariana Bezuhla, was originally elected as a member of Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, but has recently broken from the government.
It is not uncommon for Ukrainians to lose aircraft, often on the ground and in Iskander strikes, when they bring them to forward airfields, and are discovered by Orlan surveillance drones. However the F-16s are so far, far behind the front in Western Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Air Force achieved a notable feat earlier this month when its MiGs destroyed three bridges over the Seim river in Russia’s Kursk, greatly complicating Russian logistics and securing Ukrainian left flank around Sudzha.
Ukraine is set to receive at least 65 F-16s from Denmark, Netherlands, Belgium and Norway. The big bottleneck and limiting factor is pilot training. In this respect the lost pilot will be much more difficult to replace than the plane.
The Russian strike of August 26 was centered on disrupting Ukraine’s electric network. Russia launches a similar country-wide strike targeting mostly power distribution and generation, once or twice monthly.
The idea is to gather a larger number of missiles, and then fire them simultaneously, to make it more difficult for Ukrainian anti-air systems to intercept them.
(Ukraine claims it used American JDAM glide bombs (range 30 km) against the bridges, in reality it likely used the longer-range French AASM Hammer cruise missile or similar weapon.)
Now, now. Most likely, both the plane and SAM operators were those “NATO-affiliated contractors”. Or “instructors”. Or whatever the Current Year euphemism is for… well, the kind of people who wind up transported by all those NATO medical planes over Eastern Europe, or sometimes have a sudden, fatal and enigmatic accident in Poland right after a Russian missile strike in the middle of Ukraine.
https://simplicius76.substack.com/p/sitrep-9624-the-grind-continues-as
As to the friendly fire incident… this may even be true. After all, Patriot was infamous for friendly fire for decades, wasn’t it? Supposedly this was due to a software bug which is now patched, IIRC. But then this happens. Is it truly fixed, or did they just remove the most obvious kludge from a big kludge pile?
Adam Kinzinger is a warmonger and a war profiteer. He’s the poster boy for Empire: an amoral, violence-loving psychopath, just like Tom Cotton.
Monsters in tailored suits.