Editors note: Unwanted advertising popups are now the default on Google Blogger. The Boresight highly recommends installing free Adblock Plus into your browser to suppress this annoyance - and view our content in peace.
August 10, 2024 - Ukraine is conducting a large-scale operation that has produced a large incursion into Russia.
History instructs that when a Western army (for which the Ukrainian Armed Forces now are) enters Russian territory in any serious way - that entry marks the beginning of the end - for that Western army. The more serious the incursion - the more certain its defeat.
The exquisite irony that this is happening at Kursk - is even more salient.
[Above] The first images appeared of ex-NATO F-16 AM in Ukrainian, in early August 2024.
New York Times 04-Aug, 2024:
"President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said on Sunday that his army had received a first batch of F-16 fighter jets. The long-awaited arrival of the Western-supplied jets should bolster the country’s defenses, although Kyiv appears to have received too few of them so far to have an immediate impact on the battlefield.
“F-16s are in Ukraine. We did it,” Mr. Zelensky said in a video posted on social media networks showing him at an air base addressing and meeting Ukrainian pilots. He was standing in front of two F-16s, and two more flew overhead as he spoke. At the very least, the arrival of the jets will bolster Ukrainians’ morale, which has been dampened by months of slow, but steady Russian advances on the battlefield and devastating attacks on the country’s power grid." Source.
Again the impact of a handful of these aircraft remains unclear. Please see our writing on this subject here. With Russian air defense regularly downing AGM-88 HARM missiles fired by Ukrainian fast-jets aviation in the past - we can not see how changing the launch platform from the MiG-29 or Su-27 to the F-16 demonstrably alters these outcomes.
The answer is - it doesn't.
So what will the Ukraine do with the F-16?
They can likely hide them from the Russians on the ground with dispersal and by using underground bunkers - but once the F-16 is in the air - that is where they will be in the greatest peril. Ukraine might try to disrupt VKS FAB employment on the frontlines - however, Russia has air superiority there and Russian air defenses have also proven extremely lethal.
It also remains unclear if the avionics have been altered on these F-16s to facilitate the Soviet/Russian artificial horizon format. It can be dangerous for any pilot unfamiliar with the differences - especially when moving from one format to another as Ukraine pilots would have had to do.
Our best guess is the handful of aircraft will mostly be used in the western parts of Ukraine to intercept drones and to act as PR. They will also become primary targets for the Russians.
We shall see...
- All media found here is for scholarly and research purposes and protected under U.S. Internet ‘Fair Use’ Law -
Comments
Post a Comment