The F-16 Viper fighters that Ukraine is in the process of receiving will let the country take better advantage of Western air-launched munitions that have already been delivered, the U.S. Air Force’s top officer in Europe has highlighted. The War Zone has previously explored in detail how the array of weapons the F-16 platform can use makes the jets a particularly important addition to the Ukrainian Air Force’s fleets. Still, American and other foreign officials continue to stress that Vipers are not a “golden bullet” in Ukraine’s fight against Russia, despite the important benefits they will provide in the near and long term.
Air Force Gen. James Hecker discussed what F-16s will and won’t offer Ukraine, at least in the immediate future, during a virtual talk the Air & Space Forces Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies hosted earlier today. Hecker is head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe (USAFE), as well as Air Forces Africa (AFAFRICA) and NATO’s Allied Air Command.
U.S. and other foreign officials announced that the delivery of the initial tranche of F-16s to Ukraine was underway earlier this month. A claimed sighting of one of those jets flying in Ukrainian airspace emerged yesterday, but this remains unconfirmed. To date, Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway have collectively pledged some 85 F-16AM/BM jets to Ukraine and Greece may be moving to commit 32 additional F-16C/D variants.
When it comes to weapons for those aircraft, “we’ve already given them… several [types of relevant] munitions… like the ones you talked about,” Hecker said today. The general was responding to a question wherein AIM-120 Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM), AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, and Joint Direct Attack Munition-Extended Range (JDAM-ER) and Small Diameter Bomb (SDB) precision-guided glide bombs were all mentioned. A separate report today from the Wall Street Journal said that AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARM), which Ukraine also already has in its arsenal, is among the weapons set to be used on the country’s forthcoming F-16s. Not mentioned in all of this is that Ukraine has gotten ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoys (MALD), another store that Vipers can launch.
It is worth noting here that AIM-120s and AIM-9s have previously been supplied as surface-to-air interceptors, primarily for use with the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS). Sidewinders are also reportedly in service in the ground-launched mode integrated onto one of several ad-hoc FrankenSAM systems the U.S. military has helped facilitate the development of for Ukraine. The Ukrainian Air Force has already been actively using JDAM-ERs, SDBs, and HARMs to good effect from various Soviet-era combat jets.
“So, they already have them [these Western munitions], they’re just dropping them off MiG-29s and Su-24s and those kinds of things,” Gen. Hecker added. “Now they’re going to have the opportunity to actually drop them off of an airplane that they were designed to come off of, which will give them more capability to change the targets in flight and things like that, that they’re not able to do with their other aircraft.”
Details about how U.S. and other Western precision-guided munitions have been integrated into Ukraine’s existing fleets remain limited. U.S. officials have disclosed that this involves the use of an ad-hoc control system that utilizes iPads or similar tablet-like devices mounted in the jets’ cockpits. The War Zone has highlighted in the past how this kind of integration, while very practical to meet Ukraine’s pressing immediate needs, was likely to come along with limited functionality.
As already noted, F-16s are already cleared to carry a variety of weapons. The jets therefore provide a new and easier path for other munitions, including stand-off anti-ship and land-attack cruise missiles, to enter the Ukrainian Air Force’s arsenal on top of the additional functionality when it comes to employing existing U.S.-supplied munitions The Vipers have the benefit of NATO-standard bus architecture. This might open up the possibility of Ukraine using them as launch platforms for other Western air-launched munitions, like Storm Shadow and SCALP EG cruise missiles from the United Kingdom and France, respectively, and French-made Hammer rocket-assisted precision-guided bombs.
In speaking today, Gen. Hecker also highlighted how the F-16s will come along with Western training in tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTP).
“It does move them [Ukraine] a step in the right direction. And they’ve already kind of taken that step where they’ve gotten some Western tanks, Western munitions, and now… they’re getting the Western aircraft,” Hecker said. “We’ve started that transition to Western TTPs, to Western doctrine, to Western equipment, and they’re going to be much better off and a much better… partner once they mature with all these capabilities that we’re giving them.”
That “is a cultural shift for somebody who was trained by the Russians years ago, and that takes time,” Hecker added. “You know, a seven-month course on how to fly an F-16 isn’t going to change that culture overnight. And we’ve seen that with other Eastern Bloc countries that now are members of NATO… This is talking, you know, half decades, decades to kind of get to that point. But we started with a clock and I think that’s a good start.”
Well before plans to send F-16s to Ukraine were finalized, The War Zone underscored the importance of starting to deliver Western combat jets to the country for exactly these reasons, which go beyond the context of the current conflict. You can also read more in detail about how what it takes to fully train new Viper pilots in this past feature.
At the same time, the Air Force’s top officer in Europe did seek to temper expectations about how significant the contributions of Ukraine’s F-16s will be in the immediate future.
“I’ve said this before, it’s not going to be the golden BB or the golden bullet, that all of a sudden, you know, they have F-16s and now they’re going to go out and gain air superiority,” Hecekr stressed. “And it’s not just because it’s Ukraine, it’s just… the integrated air and missile defense systems that they’re going up against is [sic] that good. And we have a hard time with [stealthy] fifth-generation aircraft going against that.”
Hecker also acknowledged that the F-16s will come along with new maintenance and other demands that the Ukrainians will have to learn to manage.
“I’m not going to go into you know, who’s going over there – how many contractors, [from the] U.S., other nations – just because I don’t think that’s appropriate to pass on,” Hecker said. “We are definitely looking into the maintenance [aspect] and how we’re going to do that, and I think we have a good way forward to make that happen.”
Other U.S. and foreign officials have made similar comments trying to put the F-16 deliveries to Ukraine into more realistic perspectives. There continue to be reports that issues with training pipelines for pilots and maintainers, in particular, present ongoing hurdles to getting the Vipers fully into Ukrainian service.
All this being said, Ukraine getting F-16s is still a major development and those jets will offer the immediate benefit of being able to get more out of stocks of Western munitions that have already been delivered.
Contact the author: joe@twz.com