Ukraine has confirmed the loss of another F-16 fighter jet during combat operations in the country’s eastern region. This is the second confirmed loss of the US-made aircraft in the Ukraine war after an F-16 was lost in August last year. Tragically, in both instances, the pilots of the fighter jets also lost their lives.
The Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) command, writing on Facebook on April 12, reported the death of 26-year-old fighter pilot Pavlo Ivanov, killed during a combat mission in an F-16 aircraft.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also confirmed the loss, stating that military reports are being prepared to clarify the circumstances.
Notably, both the statements by the UAF and President Zelenskyy did not specify the location or circumstances of the loss, fueling speculation as to whether the fighter jet was downed by a Russian surface-to-air missile (SAM) or it was another instance of friendly fire.
The UAF statement said: “We extend our deepest condolences to Paul’s family. He was killed in battle defending his native land from the invaders… Today, F-16 pilots carry out combat missions in various directions in incredibly difficult conditions, carrying out destructive cover for air strike groups and striking enemy objects.”
Zelenskyy also confirmed Pavlov’s death, adding that Kyiv “needs reports from the military on this combat situation…We are investigating all the circumstances.”
Both these statements were conspicuous about withholding details leading to the downing of the aircraft. However, Russian military bloggers and media outlets like Top War have claimed that the fighter jet was downed by a Russian surface-to-air missile (SAM).
Russian SAM Or Friendly Fire
Speculation that this might have been another incident of friendly fire gained strength following President Zelenskyy’s statement that Kyiv “needs reports from the military on this combat situation…We are investigating all the circumstances.”
As the Russian media outlet RT suggested, “A clear combat loss would hardly merit such a probe.”
Interestingly, Ukraine’s first F-16 combat loss that resulted in the death of pilot Oleksii Mes, known by the call sign Moonfish, in August last year, was also blamed on friendly fire.
Though Ukraine had announced a probe into it, the results were never announced. However, a report in the Wall Street Journal suggested that it was an incident of friendly fire or a mechanical failure.
In December last year, Russia claimed to have shot down another Ukrainian F-16 aircraft in the Zaporizhia region, but Ukraine did not acknowledge this.
Absence Of Link-16 Causing Repeated Friendly Fire Incidents?
Sources cited by the WSJ report had suggested that the tragedy in August last year might have been caused by the absence of the Link 16 tactical network on the Patriot missile systems delivered to Ukraine.
Link 16 is a secure communication system that provides a real-time overview of military assets, including aircraft, ground units, air defense systems, and command centers. It plays a crucial role in preventing friendly fire incidents and improving pilot safety during combat operations.
When the first Patriot missile batteries arrived in Ukraine in April 2023, they were not equipped with Link 16 because, at the time, no one anticipated that Ukraine would receive F-16 fighter jets.
Dariia Kaleniuk, co-founder of the International Centre for Ukrainian Victory, told the newspaper that after Western nations approved the transfer of the F-16s, this oversight remained unaddressed, leaving the Patriots without the necessary system to identify friendly aircraft.
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The report suggested that the absence of Link 16 might have been due to the US’s reluctance to provide Ukraine with such a sensitive tool. The Biden administration was cautious in its military aid to Kyiv, often limiting access to advanced technology or imposing restrictions on how certain weapons could be used.
Though the WSJ report came out in February, the tumultuous relationship between Kyiv and the new US administration raises the possibility that this lacuna in the Patriot missile defense system has not been fully addressed.
Half Of Ukraine’s Aircraft ‘Shot Down’ In Friendly Fire?
Notably, last month, a Ukrainian lawmaker made an audacious claim, alleging that a significant number of Ukrainian aircraft had been lost to friendly fire.
Maryana Bezuglaya, a member of the Verkhovna Rada (Ukraine’s unicameral Parliament), has claimed that half of the Ukrainian Air Force’s fighter jets and military choppers were brought down by the Ukrainian army’s own air defense systems. Bezuglaya wrote this on her Telegram channel.
“About half of the airplanes and helicopters are shot down by our air defense forces.”
However, Ukraine is not alone in losing aircraft to friendly fire. Both Russia and Ukraine have lost aircraft to friendly fire on multiple occasions in more than three years of the conflict. Both countries have saturated their airspaces by deploying state-of-the-art air defense systems to deny air superiority to the enemy. One downside of this blanket air denial is sporadic friendly fire incidents.
For instance, a Ukrainian MiG-29 Fulcrum was shot down by a Soviet-made but Ukrainian Army-operated 9K33 Osa (SA-8 Gecko) in January 2023. Before that, some media reports in February 2022 and June 2022 indicated that one Su-27 was lost in both friendly fire incidents.
Similarly, the independent Russian media outlet The Insider had reported in April last year that since the war began, Moscow has lost at least 13 military aircraft to friendly fire from its own air defenses.
According to the report, Russia had lost four Su-35 multi-role aircraft, three Su-34 fighter-bombers, two A-50U airborne early warning and control aircraft, one Su-27 multi-role aircraft, one Mi-8 transport helicopter, and one Mi-24 multipurpose helicopter in friendly fire incidents in the Ukraine war.
The F-16s In The Ukrainian Air Force
The F-16 is a single-engine multirole fighter designed by General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin). Though the aircraft was introduced in the 1970s, it has since undergone multiple upgrades.
Ukraine received the first batch of F-16 fighter jets in July last year. In the Ukrainian Air Force, F-16s represented a leap from Soviet-era platforms like the MiG-29 and Su-27, offering superior agility and firepower.
Initially, F-16s were termed a “game-changer” for Ukraine. However, soon it became apparent that Kyiv could use these fighter jets only in limited roles and primarily for defense purposes only.
One major problem was training Ukrainian pilots on these Western fighter jets. Ukrainian pilots are undergoing training for F-16s in Denmark, the US, and Romania. However, due to the demands of the war, Ukraine has compressed timelines for this training. Multiple officials have questioned the wisdom of shortened timelines for F-16 training.
Typically, rookie F-16 pilots undergo extensive training, often taking up to a year with their unit before engaging in combat. In contrast, Ukrainian pilots were quickly thrust into “the fight right away, with at most a year of experience operating the aircraft.”
These shortened training timelines could also have contributed to the latest crash.
Speaking on shortened training timelines, Indian Air Force veteran Air Marshal Anil Chopra told the Eurasian Times: “You can shorten the training by a small amount, but not too much. The training has to be thorough. If you go to war with minimal training, there is a high risk of getting shot down. The opponent likely has much more experience, and the platforms are of similar/superior capabilities.”
Ukrainian defense officials have also questioned the relevance of these old aircraft in the current conflict.
Recently, Ukrainian Air Force spokesperson Yuri Ignat complained that the older variants of the F-16 gifted to Ukraine by its allies could not fully compete with Russia’s Su-35 in aerial combat.
Even though the F-16s were better than the UAF’s MiG-29 and Su-27, they paled in comparison to Russia’s Su-35, as they lacked the latter’s thrust-vectoring maneuverability.
Because of these reasons, despite being a powerful addition to Ukraine’s military capabilities, the F-16s currently in service are primarily used for defensive operations rather than complex strike missions.
US and Ukrainian officials have repeatedly confirmed that these jets are primarily restricted to air defense roles and avoid direct engagements with Russian fighter aircraft.
Vijiander K. Thakur, a retired Indian Air Force veteran and an expert on Russian military tactics, previously told EurAsian Times that Ukraine’s reliance on F-16s is a tactical adjustment rather than a game-changer.
“When your 70s vintage, single-engine, short-range fighter has little role to play operating against high endurance, far-seeing, long-range weapons-armed adversary fighters, this is how you cope,” he explained.
- Sumit Ahlawat has over a decade of experience in news media. He has worked with Press Trust of India, Times Now, Zee News, Economic Times, and Microsoft News. He holds a Master’s Degree in International Media and Modern History from The University of Sheffield, UK.
- He can be reached at ahlawat.sumit85 (at) gmail.com
