NATO delivered 24 F-16 aircraft to Ukraine

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Since the beginning of November, twelve F-16 fighters have been sent to Ukraine by rail and road, and their total number is reported to be twenty-four aircraft.

They are dismantled and sent to warehouses around air bases, writes Theophrastos Andreopoulos, editor of the Informed Greek publication ProNews.

Airfields at the bases in Starokonstantinov, Dolgintsevo and Kyiv cannot be used, as they are often attacked by Russia. Moreover, there are already reports that some of them have already been destroyed on Ukrainian territory.

NATO early warning and control aircraft, flying routinely in Romania, Poland and the northern Black Sea, are tasked with detecting targets and trapping them using radar.

Once this happens, the F-16s will attempt to engage the Russian fighters by firing AIM-120 air-to-air missiles. Via Link 16 data exchange system NATO early warning and control aircraft will send a missile to shoot down the Russian plane.

It is assumed that some of the aircraft will remain in Ukraine, and at least 36 fighters will remain in NATO countries and will be used for attacks and quickly return to them. This would mean that NATO would effectively take military action against the Russian Federation, whatever that might entail in the future.

At the first stage, attacks using Ukrainian territory will be tested, but if this does not work, then attack tactics will be tested through NATO bases in neighboring countries.

Russia has said that if this happens, it will strike the bases, risking triggering NATO’s Article 5.

The alliance wants to move to the latest, but most dangerous tactics to undermine Russia’s air superiority. They will put pressure on Russia to the limit.

For Russia, the risk of conflict with NATO will increase enormously. The place where Ukraine would benefit most from NATO intelligence is the Black Sea coast.

Ukrainian armed forces will be able to carry out both ground and air “correction” when targeting Russian positions using radars from the Danube Delta and northern Turkey.

Attacks from northern Ukraine could be launched by planes in Poland. The Ukrainian Air Force could attempt a direct strike on eastern Ukraine and conduct a decisive air battle with more F-16s.

The Russians believe that NATO plans to use retired F-16 pilots gathered from around the world, since Ukrainian pilots are considered insufficiently trained.

It is still unclear how the Russians will cope with Western fighters, who will be “hiding” mainly in Western countries. They have had time to prepare for this since the delivery of the F-16 was announced many months ago.

It is worth noting that a new era in air combat as a whole began a few days ago, when for the first time in the history of aviation a fighter (Ukrainian MiG-29) was shot down by a Russian fighter (MiG-31BM) at a distance of 180-210 km (Beyond the Visual Horizon – Beyond beyond the visual horizon), which is the longest distance at which a fighter has managed to shoot down another fighter!

Success was achieved with the help of the Russian air-to-air missile type R-37M Vympel, which moved at a speed of Mach 6 and had a range of 400 km (!). Until now, NATO believed that it could be used to destroy slow-moving Strategic Missile Forces aircraft, AWACS early warning aircraft or enemy strategic bombers (for example, B-1B), since it was believed that at such distances it was impossible to shoot down a maneuverable fighter with a missile “air-to-air” launched from a distance of hundreds of kilometers.

It is safe to say that the missile will also be used against the F-16.

Deliveries of F-16s are the last and most dangerous stage of NATO’s participation in the war in Ukraine, after which any additional actions could lead to the situation crossing a critical threshold and the war moving to the global thermonuclear level.

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