F-16 Fighter: Game Changer for Ukraine and Nightmare for Russia?

Key Points and Summary: The introduction of F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine is revolutionizing its air force amid the ongoing war with Russia. Transitioning from Soviet-era MiG-29s and Su-27s, the F-16 brings advanced technology, precision weaponry, and improved capabilities to counter Russian air superiority.

-While the shift has been challenging due to operational and training complexities, the F-16’s success in intercepting cruise missiles and targeting Russian glide bomb platforms underscores its transformative impact.

-Drawing from Poland’s similar transition experience, Ukraine is quickly adapting to this modern platform, which is already reshaping its airpower strategy and providing a critical edge in defending against Russian aggression.

F-16s for Ukraine: A Game Changer or Just a Tough Transition?

One of the implications of Russia’s February 2022 invasion of its neighbor was that in the long-term the Ukrainian Air Force (PSU) was going to eventually have a very different mix of aircraft.

Continuing to operate its Russian-designed Mikoyan MiG-29, Sukhoi Su-24, Su-25, and Su-27 models is not viable in the future. Neither the spare parts required to keep them in operational condition nor the weapon systems that would normally have to be sourced from Russia will be available again.

The scarcity of parts dictated a change from these Soviet-era platforms to Western models. Meeting in Poland to consult with the Polish Air Force (PS) in August 2022, a Ukrainian delegation that had surveyed all of the various options for a new fighter aircraft stated simply, “We originally had looked at any number of options for what will become the workhorse for our air force, but it became clear that the only aircraft that makes any sense is the F-16.”

The Poles had transitioned from the MiG-29 to the F-16 more than a decade before. This transition provided a wealth of experience that has benefitted Ukraine, as it allowed them to learn just how different these two fighter aircraft models are.

“We know where you are [in this process],” said the commander of one of the F-16 bases in Poland to the PSU delegation. “You are exactly where we were almost 20 years ago,”

Around 18 months ago, a pilot with the PS who had the experience of flying both types of aircraft told Newsweek the F-16 was a much better aircraft for the PSU. The F-16, he explained, was designed to operate in a modern-day air power scenario while he described the MiG-29 as a platform that is a “ghost” of the previous, Cold War generation. The short version of his detailed evaluation of the MiG was simply: “I wouldn’t like to fly that jet in real combat.”

Transformational F-16

The “teething pains” associated with learning to operate and support the F-16 are not limited to those nations in the CEE (Central and Eastern Europe) region that still had Russian aircraft in their inventory when they became NATO member states and eventually acquired Western fighter models.

The generational difference between this aircraft and older-model US fighters was no less a change in culture and operational procedure.

One former USAF pilot who had flown the McDonnell-Douglas F-4 Phantom recalled what it was like when the airbase where he was assigned acquired its first complement of F-16s.

F-16 Image: Creative Commons.

“We used to come into the Squadron Ready Room about 20 minutes or so, scrawl some elementary mission plan onto a blackboard and say, ‘everybody got it?’ Then we would head outside, pull chocks and off into the wild blue yonder we went.

“Then came the F-16 pilots—mostly younger than us, of course. We thought they were geeks. They would show up an hour or more before the mission of the day and they had their little attache cases and would spend an hour more programming their missile profile cartridges before they headed for their aircraft. Not all what we thought of as the natural behavior for a pilot.”

The point that he and others have made is that the F-16 generation of aircraft has had a transformational impact on air forces in almost every place it was ever introduced. It changes “how an air force thinks and fights and is organized,” in the words of the same former F-4 pilot.

Poland and Ukraine

How the Polish experience with the F-16 played out some decades later was almost a carbon copy of its 1970s introduction into the USAF. Almost up until the beginning of the war in Ukraine the PS operated both types of aircraft, but they were practically two different halves of the same air force.

The same Polish pilot who had flown both airframes described the F-16 and MiG-29 as part of “two different leagues.” This disparity could be seen in how the MiG-29 pilots affected the kind of “white scarf and leather jacket” demeanor that is the 1960s fighter ace persona.

Maj. Garrett Schmitz, pilot for the F-16 Viper Demonstration Team, performs aerial maneuvers with an F-16 Fighting Falcon at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., May 16, 2019. Air Combat Command pilots must complete rigorous training and receive certification from four levels of U.S. Air Force leadership before they can earn the title of Demonstration Team Commander. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Marcus M. Bullock)

In contrast, the F-16 pilots were younger, more educated and more low-key, as one of the senior Polish military officers who served when the US-made jet was being introduced into service.

Ukraine is experiencing the same generational divide in its air force, but it is a much more rapid shift into the F-16 universe due to the urgencies created in times of war. One example is when Yuri Sak, who was an advisor to the then-Ukraine Minister of Defense Oleksei Reznikov, told the BBC the F-16 was critical to Ukraine’s being able to challenge Russia’s “air superiority along the front line.”

The missions this aircraft can perform that the MiG-29 cannot make the challenges in its introduction well worth the required effort. Ukraine F-16 pilots have already achieved a real milestone in downing a record number of Russian cruise missiles that Moscow has been using to try and destroy infrastructure and civilian targets.

Another BBC report from last July described how the aircraft could negate the destructive effects of the glide bombs Russia has been using against the front-line position. “If Ukraine can protect its F-16s on the ground,” reads the article, “the hope is that they could play an important part in pushing back the Russian aircraft to a point where the glide bombs can no longer target Ukrainian ground forces.”

As it stands today, the F-16s appear to be well into the process of altering the Ukrainian concept of air power as they have in other countries where they have replaced an older-generation platform.

The initial period is always difficult for any new aircraft, but the F-16 seems to be making its mark in this war. The PSU would be much worse off without it despite the difficulties and effort required to overcome them.

About the Author: Reuben F. Johnson

Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is now an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw.  He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design.  Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.