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To preserve its precious fleet of American-designed Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, the Ukrainian air force spreads out, fights at night—and works fast. Russian missiles and drones are a constant threat as air force ground crews fuel and arm the single-engine, single-seat, supersonic F-16s, Euromaidan Press media outlet says. The crews hurry to get a jet off the ground before the Russian munitions barrel in, one maintainer said in a recent official video. "Prepare the plane, put the pilot in it and hide in the shelter," is how he described his nightly labor.
There are too few ground crews, spare parts and weapons for the nimble F-16s, 85 of which Belgium, Denmark, The Netherlands and Norway have pledged to Ukraine from their own surplus stocks. "The work is quite difficult and intensive because there are shortages," a second maintainer said in the same video.
But the hard-working ground crews have gained invaluable experience since the first operational F-16s arrived in Ukraine in August 2024. The air force lost four of the hard-to-replace jets in the first 10 months of ops. It hasn’t lost any since June, even as more F-16s arrive—the 50th may already be in Ukraine—and the overall pace of sorties increase, Euromaidan Press says.
The F-16 is about to become the most numerous type in service with the Ukrainian air force, outnumbering ex-Soviet Mikoyan MiG-29s and Sukhoi Su-27s. The F-16 is a stopgap for the battered air force, however. Ukraine recently inked a deal with Sweden that could eventually equip the air force with 250 new Saab JAS-39s, also known as Gripens.
Saab designed the Gripen from the wheels-up for operations from short, dirty airstrips. Its twin air intakes are high enough on the fuselage to mitigate the risk they’ll suck up damaging debris. The F-16 can fly from the same airstrips, of course—but it’s riskier given the American-designed jet’s low-slung air intake, Euromaidan Press says.
The dispersed flight ops are hectic and dangerous. A few maintainers prepare a few jets, launch them as quickly as possible and then scurry into cover in case the Russians spot the launching fighters—and attack with drones or missiles. "There were situations where, even after we launched the plane, a [Russian munition] was flying over us and we literally had time to run into cover and there was already an explosion 100 meters away," the first ground crewman recalled. It’s unclear how many jets a single team might launch at one time from a single location. It’s telling, however, that one dispersed air force ground crew launched enough F-16s to fire 45 missiles in one night, according to the second maintainer. A Ukrainian F-16 typically flies air-defense sorties, defending against Russian drones and cruise missiles, with a load of just six air-to-air missiles, Euromaidan Press says.
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