Ukrainian pilot of a Western-supplied F-16 fighter jet shot down a barrage of Russian cruise missiles last month in what has been described as a historic first by Kyiv.
After a long wait, Ukraine announced in August 2024 it had received its first batch of F-16 aircraft amid hope that they would make a difference in Kyiv’s fight against Russia than the older Soviet-era aircraft it had relied on.
With concerns about the training period for pilots, there was an initial setback after a Ukrainian pilot was killed soon after the F-16s’ delivery, so the successful use of the fourth-generation aircraft will boost morale for Ukraine’s forces.
Ukraine’s Air Force said on Tuesday that a Ukrainian-operated jet shot down six Russian cruise missiles during a single mission.
“For the first time in the history of the Fighting Falcon, an F-16 fighter jet destroyed six Russian cruise missiles in one combat mission,” the Air Force Command said on Facebook, according to a translation next to an image of a pilot.
Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said that the interception took place during a Russian aerial strike of almost 200 drones and 94 missiles on December 13, 2024.
“They say that even Americans couldn’t believe you did it,” Ihnat said in the post that detailed an interview he had with the pilot, whose identity was not revealed.
The pilot said that, following his training by U.S. instructors, he approached a group of cruise missiles and locked onto them, despite their electronic warfare (EW) countermeasures.
The pilot downed one pair of Russian projectiles with medium-range missiles and another pair with short-range missiles, according to the post.
The pilot was recalled from the area but spotted another missile heading toward Kyiv at around 400 miles an hour and so responded by trying to intercept it with an aircraft cannon.
Ukraine’s Air Force Command said its pilots had learned how to shoot down missiles with aircraft cannons in simulators but not during actual combat before.
Ukrainian Air Force spokesman Yurii Ihnat said on Facebook: “We have one hundred percent confirmation that, for the first time in history in antiair combat, an American fighter F-16 shoots down six winged missiles, two of them by air cannon.”
The post by Ukraine boasted about the capabilities of Ukrainian pilots. Kyiv is likely to step up its calls for the provision of more F-16s from its European allies, with Belgium providing 30 fighter jets by the end of 2028, per RBC-Ukraine.
Ukraine will continue its calls for the planes as well as more advanced aircraft. “Just imagine what a tremendous restraint force in the center of Europe will become war-seasoned Ukrainian pilots when the armament of the Air Force will come, say, F-35s!” said Ihnat’s Facebook post.
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