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Ukraine's Air Force used F-16 jets as part of its defense against Russia's mass missile and drone attack on Aug. 26, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed during a press conference on Aug. 27.
Russia targeted 15 of Ukraine's 24 oblasts on Aug. 26, launching over 200 missiles and drones as part of the largest-ever aerial attack against Ukraine.
Strikes hit several civilian, energy, and fuel facilities, including a dam in Kyiv, part of the Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant, killing seven people and injuring at least 47 others.
Ukraine downed 102 missiles and 99 drones of the 127 missiles and 109 drones launched by Russia during the morning attack.
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F-16s gave "a very good result," Zelensky told reporters. "As part of this huge attack, we shot down some missiles and drones with the help of F-16s."
"We thank our partners for providing us with the F-16s. Of course, this is not enough, we don't have many of them, and we still need to train pilots," Zelensky added.
Ukraine received its first F-16s by the beginning of August, a year after its allies formed the fighter jet coalition to provide training and aircraft to Ukraine.
Kyiv has been promised at least 79 F-16s from the Netherlands, Denmark, Norway, and Belgium. Ukraine has reportedly received ten jets so far.
F-16s are expected to strengthen Ukraine's air defense capabilities, with Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi commenting on Aug. 4 that the arrival of the jets will result in "more downed missiles."
spaceneenja on August 27th, 2024 at 16:15 UTC »
Gotta be a bit nerve wracking being up there in a plane shooting down missiles when ground AA is desperately trying to shoot down anything in the sky that looks like a drone or missile.
I am sure I would be shitting myself
NolAloha on August 27th, 2024 at 15:45 UTC »
During the Second World War, the RAF, coordinating their defense with radar support, was able to destroy almost all of the German V-1 buzz bombs. An F-16, matching speed with a drone, can easily destroy multiple targets.
Tnargkiller on August 27th, 2024 at 14:07 UTC »
Those are intercept rates of 80.3% and 90.8%, respectively. Hopefully they can get it higher once further tranches of F-16's get there.