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Ukraine F-16 crashes
Kyiv’s military said that one of the PSU (Ukrainian Air Force) F-16 fighter jets crashed while repelling a major Russian attack on Monday. This is the first such loss reported since the long-awaited arrival of the US-made planes last month.
As a source told to CNN, pilot Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes was killed in the crash while “repelling the biggest ever aerial attack” by Russia against Ukraine. The pilot was buried on Thursday.
The Ukrainian Defense Forces do not believe pilot error was behind the incident. International experts have been invited to participate in the investigation of the crash.
A US defense official told to Reuters that Monday’s crash did not appear to be the result of Russian fire.
Ukraine has not given details about the size of its new fleet, though the loss left a significant dent. The Times of London has cited a source as saying PSU had six of the jets.
The Ukrainian General Staff said on Thursday on Facebook: “During the approach to the next target, communication with one of the aircraft was lost. As it turned out later, the plane crashed, the pilot died.”
According to Reuters, the F-16s had “demonstrated high efficiency” and downed four Russian cruise missiles, it added. Ukraine said Russia launched more than 200 missiles and drones that day targeting the energy sector.
A major blow for Ukrainian Air Force
The death of Mes is a major blow for Ukraine given that Moonfish was one of the few pilots trained to fly F-16s.
Moonfish and Andriy “Juice” Pilshchikov were the faces of Ukraine’s campaign to get the F-16s.
It was an uphill battle, but Juice and Moonfish pulled through it together. They were young and enthusiastic, spoke good English and were willing to fight to get the US jets into Ukrainian skies.
According to CNN, flying the F-16 was their dream and when Juice died in a plane crash during a combat mission last August, Moonfish made it his goal to fulfill it.
Kyiv’s F-16s
On Jul. 31 ,2024 Ukraine has received the first batch of fourth-generation US-made F-16 fighter jets.
Netherlands, Denmark, Belgium, and Norway are expected to deliver at least 79 F-16s to Ukraine, with the deliveries to continue in the coming years.
The jets were all updated to the AM standard through the F-16 Mid-Life Update (MLU) package that was designed to upgrade the cockpit and avionics to the equivalent of that on the F-16C/D Block 50/52.
As already explained [CLICK HERE to read the article], the F-16 will not be a game-changer in the war. Nevertheless, it will provide the Ukrainian Air Force with tactical options they’ve never had since the war began: in fact, the F-16s will be able to strengthen Ukraine’s air defense capabilities and shield the country’s population centers from Russia’s daily bombings.
Photo credit: Ukrainian Air Force
