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The first 24 Dutch F16s are transferred or prepared for transfer. The last 18 F16s have been used by the Dutch Airforce till April 2024. The main issue is not the availability of the planes, but the availability of trained pilots and maintenance engineers for the F16.
@@Diekr Maybe, but 42 of the promised F16s are coming from the Dutch Airforce. Maybe the USA should try to beat us, they have thousands of F16s, they should be able to double or triple the 42 .
Ukrainian pilots are being trained as we comment and don't underestimate the Ukrainian military like some did, who thought Kiev would fall in 3 days. lol
Yes that, but mostly stable airbases to store many of those fighter, if they'd have 150 aicraft that'd be impossible. I'm sure like 10 f16s can already do a strong extra especially if combined with other arms & weapons.
@@Diekr Is this a baseless, pointless comment? Both countries are highly supportive of Ukraine. In the final analysis, it doesn't matter where they are from, but that they are indeed flying in Ukraine.
Air to air, it gets active radar guided missiles vs the MIGs semi-active. Massive change, but Russian air defense is still too pervasive to expect F16s to engage Russian jets near the front without great risk. Air to ground, it’s compatible with a wide range of precision guided, long range weapons that weren’t previously available for Ukraine.
The size of Ukraine and the bow shape of front anything less than 300 a/c is a defensive Air Force. Wanting to liberate pre 2014 boundaries would take over 300 a/c not to mention loses from engagements and general maintenance issues. Keeping levels above 300 a/c would make an offensive position. Let’s just hope the 16’s turn out as well as the Bradley’s in the war. Situation of wanting and needing more of them like Bradley’s.
Fairly recent model? No, the f-16MLU is nowhere near being recent. It has an apg-66v2 radar that is MASSIVELY overmatched by the big PESA radars on the su-30/35. The MLU is no match for those flankers in air to air combat and needs to stay well away from them. Now in striking ground targets it’s going to be pretty good
Russian air defenses might be "formidable" on paper but there is such a shortage now (because of Ukrainian drone strikes) that 300 & 400 systems can't be too close. I would argue that Ukraine is making them more useful to the front line.
I believe the technology is as good as the user. An analogue Russian jet in the hands of an expert can be very effective even against more modern jets. Am I wrong?
It's not really about aircraft. It's about the radars and the missiles fitted to each plane. And whether or not a plane has an AWACS standing off, providing high-quality information over datalink. It is highly unlikely that any dogfights will ever take place over the skies of Ukraine, as the vast majority of air combat is BVR or Beyond Visual Range. The real question is this: are the USA supplying AIM-120C or even 120D missiles for those F-16s? And we know the USA have just converted the awesome SM-6 ship-based missile to be carried by the F-16, and it's now called the AIM-174, with a massive range, especially if launched at high altitudes and at supersonic speeds. So, come on America, let Ukraine be the unofficial field testers of the AIM-174!!
Just a thought: the German Iris-T short range air to air missile can shoot down surface to air and other air to air missiles. Equipping the F-16s with those in addition to HARMs might allow them to operate within range of Russian SAMs. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRIS-T
I also remember. One of 20 systems that contributed to this incredible War. Why people doubt the F-16 is, from my vantage, just fear-based. It has already made some difference in the Psych of this conflict, unless the 1 WEEK difference between the arrival of these jets and the best Offensive move by Ukraine [since Kharkiv '22] is "just a coincidence."
Whoever is designing the tactics to get rid of Russian air defense systems has been very good at lowering the capabilities. It's been PLANNED for reducing the numbers and amounts of defense systems. After seeing, literally, the way the Ukranian military forces have been so innovative, there may come some surprises even the US and other militaries hadn't thought of.
Russia has "unprotected borders" in northern Ukraine, Finland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Kursk Region is the perfect example, where Russian conscripts just threw down their rifles and surrendered en-mass 75% of Russia's "professional" army is "pushing up daisies" .
With all this drone technology, you'd think they might develop a small battery powered propulsion system to allow ejected pilots to parasail back to friendly lines.
the F16s are NOT going to be operating over enemy territory, not sure how you would think that they would be able to do so. if they tried, they would most certainly not last long.
Most important thing is not mentioned: who will fly? New pilots need at least for some basic combat operations 250-300 hi quality training flights with good instructors and planes. Translation: 2 years minimum for training for basic combat ops. Just for flying and being clay pidgeons, not needed, few months of training. So, what will be teur purpose, without lying? Firing gliding missiles, scalps from 50km away and run? Who will program that weapon to not interfere western allies into war - its not quick and easy easy task and require equipment, knowledge and infrastructure. What are chances that russians will discover where plane are located and land some ballistic/guided missile and destroy them - or several of them? Conclusion: Empty platitudes.
@@letMeSayThatInIrish not for two years, in fact at least from publicly available info, about a year. thats not a "long time" its not enough for type training for competent pilots, and it is nowhere near enough training for a new pilot. but we dont know exactly how ukraine will use these jets either, hopefully they will use them in small increments as they come to grips with the new tactics and new weapons.
Seems he is trying to convey a message to Ukraien to excercise CAUTION,,, as ruzia is determined to slay these crafts. ,, This is why he is showing hesitations.. But he does suggest these crafts will cause problems for ruzzia,,,we've seen countless videos of GPS guided bombs in the Iraqi conflict as well as in Israel's vids of these missiles in action.
Layton seems to also be totally clueless about F-16's and the F-16's given to Ukraine. We know they are very old F-16AM's (as they are gtten from netherlands or Denmark and Netherlands adn Denmark have only F-16AM's) and he "visually identifies them as fairly recent model" even though visually we can easily identify small-mouth intake (F100 engine), no spine, no CFTs.
What an awful analysis from a supposed to be expert. Kyiv Independent interviews have been terrible in general; there is a clear disconnect between the two parties.
@@KyleH-bf5ri It's just too much listen through. I can get the same info. It's not incumbent on me to listen to the guy struggle when there are better choices.
Would you surrender to certain death or torture? Do your homework. If you knew the history of Russian crimes on Ukrainians you wouldn’t tell them to surrender.
Yeah, I always shake my head when people say that these won't make a difference. Yeah, I wish Ukraine had 100 instead of 10, but if you get like 5-10 high value sorties per day in critical areas? Especially in SEAD or CAP roles, they could really start to wear away at the remnants of Russian capability.
F16 MLU isn't F16C, but just upgraded F16A/B, I think, so I don't know why this "expert" calls it a fairly recent version. Following the MLU, there are F16C/D in blocks 25, 30, 40,50, 60, and now 70--that's at least 6 newer versions. This is like calling an iPhone 8 a "fairly new" version. Now, this doesn't mean what Ukraine got was junk, because their F16s while not the newest should be quite operable, as soon as they're mated with the right electronics and weapons, and deployed in a smart way. They will also need the proper maintenance and logistics chain, plus enough aircraft (100 or more eventually would be helpful) and trained pilots (2 to a fighter; if they could have a few dozens (paid) "volunteer" experienced retired pilots from NATO air forces, like the US sending its "Flying Tiger" volunteer squadrons in assistance of Nationalist Chinese (old KMT, not the current disgraceful CCP proxies) in their fight against Japan during WW2 (which for China started in the early 1930s, not 1939 or 1941). In any case, the F16 is not the often-ridiculed and overused term "game-changer," that's for sure (unless they're directly operated by NATO or US in numbers)--so far no weapon on either side has proven to be such, though the war has certainly been revelatory in terms of the creative uses of drones and very rapid evolution of that concept.
So not quite as much of an antique as it could have been, but not NATO's current economy class fighter. How ever this ultimately turns out (well for Ukraine, I hope), if I was Putin I'd take the fact that these aren't F-35 or F-15EX he's been fighting. All Putin really would really have are his nukes, however many remain operable. Would he and his oligarchs really want to turn Russia (and America) into a radioactive hellscape just for the privilege of driving his tanks around in Poland for a while? And if Putin does, would the oligarchs and military honchos who allow him to be king want the same thing? I may be wrong. Maybe he's kept the fine china aside for just that sort of event, but I've read in more than one place that what Putin has really accomplished is to guarantee that Russia enters a long, slow decline, and provided places like Germany and other first-world nations to break their dependence on fossil fuels that much more quickly
@@blakewu1375 I was doing some reading on the American Volunteer Group and saw that the Soviets had a Volunteer Group there for a few year but pulled them out when Germany attacked Russia. I had never heard that before.
@@BLUEYENKO that's news to me also, though in the early years the KMT was also surprisingly close to the Soviets. The Flying Tigers are of course famous (Tom Cruise still sporting their jacket in the Top Gun movies), but they actually only served as a unit for only a few months in WW2, though I'm sure some of the pilots probably decided to stick around individually longer. Using unofficial volunteers/mercenaries has had a long history, of course. Nazis helped Franco during the Spanish Civil War (in part to practice for the upcoming WW2), famously bombing Guernica; the Soviet Union sent its pilots to face off against American pilots during the Korean War and likely Vietnam as well; and even the Taiwanese sent its pilots (unofficially) to Saudi Arabia to fight in the Yemen conflict. In Ukraine, Russia has used the infamous Wagner Group and other mercenaries, the Chechens, as well as recruiting hapless soldiers (aka cannon fodder) from the Middle East, India, Africa, and China (exact numbers are hard to tell, but many were induced by what turned out to be false promises of money or told they wouldn't be in combat), but no pilots as far as I could tell. I don't think Russia has any steadfast allies that have many trained pilots capable of flying modern aircraft except for CCP China, and I'd take out the word "steadfast" or perhaps even "ally" in the description when it comes to CCP China. Right now with Kursk all their allies have suddenly developed deafness as Russia calls for their help (the Russian media in particularly have been very vocally irate about the "betrayals").
"Looks like a fairly recent model" is quite clueless. We know what planes Netherlands and Denmark had and these are not F-16C's, there are F-16AM's (modernized F-16's). The most visible external things which can be seen in the photoes are that the planes have small mouth intake (F100 engine instead of later F110 engine), no spine for extra electronics, no CFTs. The only thing visible here that was not there 40 years ago in the first F-16's are the radar warning antennas on front of the cockpit - and these were installed ~25 years ago when the planes were modernized. And those old versions of AMRAAMs don't have range of "over hundred kilometers". The "expert" seem to be very ignorant about things he claims to be an expert.
He didn't mention a Block number which would be more specific. Also he mentions close air support without talking about how difficult is the training and skillset for CAS. Are they using laser guided bombs for CAS ? if so who is doing the designating ? Do they have joint training with forward air controllers / JTACs ? the details make all the difference and the interviewee didn't have much for details.
@@BLUEYENKO No. Block 25 is C/D. All the planes Ukraine has gotten are A/B(blocks 1-20), as none of the countries who are giving Ukraine F-16s have any C/D. AFAIK They were modernized mostly to level of block 25, but few components may be on the level of block 52. And they definitely do not have the F110 engines of block 50.
type is F16A MLU (donated by the netherlands, denmark norway or maybe belgium) by the looks of it (won't go in details why) itt's most probable an ex-danish aircraft
These are ancient aircraft. And they're not any more magical than those that have already been blown out of the sky. And to "think" that Ukrainian pilots and crews are flying and maintaining these things is simply absurd. These are being flown by retired NATO officers and ground crews. No way in hell that Ukraine had brought up anyone to any capability to maintain these picky aircraft.
Iin my ignorance i never understood why they dont use the best most sophistication missiles against the bases where the planes are sitting. Why not use a barrage of the best of the best missiles to attack the bases? There must be a reason i just don't know.
Thanks for the very detailed info on the F16 capabilities. I hope Ukraine is able to recruit retired pilots from NATO countries to make use of at least one aircraft while waiting on their pilots to complete training 🫡✈️
OK THOUGH NOTHING I CAN NOT DO IN A MIG 21YOU ARE SLOW AND LOW ( YOU NEED THE FACTS ) MIG 21 GONE TO SPACE WAY BEFORE THIS SHIT WAS CONCEIVED. CLIMB RATE AND SPEED GETS 119000 FEET YOU JUST CONTINUE TO COMPLAIN AND ARGUE
