Why Russia Is Scared of F-16s In Ukraine

The door is now wide open for supporting countries of Ukraine to send them advanced fighter jets like the F-16, but which countries are willing to donate these highly advanced and expensive jets to aid Ukraine's counteroffensive? Check out today's epic new video to find out how the F-16 will be a game-changer for Ukraine, and why Russia should be worried.

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[SayGahTaah]

They still havent realized those are our practice planes.

[Elthenar]

For my money, the best fighter to send to Ukraine would be the Gripen. The Swedish JAS 39 Gripen was made for this exact war. It was built to serve as a defensive fighter against in invading Russian military. It's a modern western fighter that can use most if not all NATO weapons but it's cheap to operate, rugged and can operate from very short runways, even a long road or highway. It doesn't have to be stationed at a normal airbase that is an easy target for long range Russian missiles.

[christopherjones]

"There are hopes that relations can be reset" That did not age well with Erdogan winning reelection lol

[SoxMD]

As someone who spent 7 years in the Viper community, the F-16 is a very different airplane to their current fleet. It's a challenging jet to employ to its fullest, and the fly-by-wire controls are very sensitive. In order to safely and effectively fly the low-level, under radar sorties we've seen them fly in their own jets would take well over a year's training even for an experienced pilot. To see the F-16 as the answer in this particular conflict means you also see this thing dragging on for at least two to three more years.

[toddgilbert]

Keeping any 4th gen fighter jet from being shot down in the modern battlefield is very tricky. I think it is smart to prioritize ground equipment first.

[kmvandermeer]

Proud to be Dutch, proud we send some of the few planes we have, ...Slava Ukraini!

[Sandy-oylr]

I'd bet dollars to donuts Raytheon is working on the F-16 software logistics problem. They seem to be really big on these sorts of things. Hopefully, it'll they'll be able to straighten out things so all the planes and pilots can communicate and fly them with little trouble.

[brandonray]

I freaking love the Ukrainian people and their will to defend their homeland! Shout out from my family here in the USA 🇺🇸 to all of you in Ukraine fighting to defend your home!!! Love and prayers Slava Ukraini!!!!

[paulmakinson]

Helicopter technician here. It's actually more like 18 man hours of maintenance per flight hour for a typical modern fighter jet like a Eurofighter, Rafale or F-16. Much more for a stealth jet like F-22 or F-35 (their radar absorbing paint has to be reapplied very regularly). It's easier to train the pilots than all the technicians and mechanics. I believe that the most adapted jet for Ukraine is the Saab Gripen as it is cheap, it is meant to be maintained and rearmed by conscripts and to land on improvised airstrips. And it can carry NATO ordnance. Unfortunately, there are not enough of them, so F-16's it is.

[angrysquirrel]

The casual mention of the US not wanting to part with its own F-16’s because of “war in the pacific with China brewing” was pretty chilling.

[Rekuzan]

Too bad the Russian military doesn't have any F-16's; they could donate those to the Ukrainians too!!! 🤣🤣🤣

[shadownor]

I hope that we give Ukraine enough to not only tread water, but to win.

[andrewdawson]

"The land war they were meant for is already being fought in Ukraine". Amen

[redactedredacted]

1:15 you know this is the first time I’ve heard someone openly state there’s going to be war in the Pacific in regards to China. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one who thinks that’s an inevitability.

[markus]

RE: TRAINING UKRAINE TO FLY F-16: Ukraine has very good fighter pilots, currently struggling to defend their country with obsolete airframes. They won't be training newbies from scratch. An assessment has already been done with Ukrainian pilots who travelled to the US and were tested on F-16 simulators; they did very well. It's thought that the biggest barrier will be language so Ukrainian combat pilots are now spending their non-flying time learning English, so they can understand manuals & instructions. In short, the estimated time to train these pilots will be 4 months, omitting things they won't need, like mid-air refueling, etc. Heroyam Slava.

[zentai]

F16 is the warm up act, wait till they see the headliners.

[paulthebaker]

I live near Tyndall Air Force Base, in Panama City, Florida, and there’s a whole fleet of orange tail F-16s. These are both manned and unmanned at times used for air combat missions.

[theprogressivecynic]

The lack of available F-16s is a pretty hard issue to deal with. Probably the easiest source is Turkey, as their issue is political, not security-based (Israel and Iran are likely going to have a hot conflict in the next 3 years). As mentioned in this video, there is also the issue that Israel has the unique permission to modify US jets (namely F-16 and F-35) with their own systems--largely electronic warfare and countermeasure systems--contingent on them sharing any updated with us. We adopt some of these systems for our own domestic variants (not export models) and so we have a real issue with them being leaked. All of the F-16s that could be provided by Israel would need to be downgraded before they could be sent, posing a serious time issue. It's really unfortunate, as one of the systems that Israel developed lets their jets avoid being painted by the Russian S-300 systems in Syria, which is something that I wish that Ukraine could get access to. Similarly, they have EW systems that knock out the Iranian Shahed drones, which would be extremely useful. Good luck getting the US to sign off on that though.

On the other hand, Turkey just needs to get over its hurt feelings and send some of their as-is, which would be much faster.

[jtremblay]

Ok I would love to see Belarus try to take on Poland. One on one. It’s not even close.

[ClarkEoC]

2 hours of maintenance for 1 hour of flight. That maybe true with some aircraft but for example with the F-14 I've heard it takes up to 50 hours of maintenance for 1 hour of flight...god I miss that plane...