Ukraine has confirmed the loss of its first F-16 fighter and one of its pilots in a crash during a combat mission earlier this week. The incident is a significant blow for the Ukrainian Air Force, which has so far only received a small number of the jets, and more importantly, only a handful of combat-qualified F-16 pilots.
In a post on Facebook, Air Command “West” of the Ukrainian Air Force confirmed that Oleksiy Mes died last Monday, August 26, but not before he shot down three Russian cruise missiles and a single one-way attack drone. This was part of an attempt to repulse a major Russian missile and drone attack directed against Ukraine, the largest of the war so far, which you can read more about here.
The aircraft type Mes was flying was not initially named but was subsequently confirmed by the Ukrainian General Staff as an F-16, adding that the same type shot down four Russian cruise missiles during the same raid.
An unnamed U.S. official also confirmed the fatal crash of a Ukrainian F-16 in an incident on Monday, The Wall Street Journal reported today. Details of exactly what happened are unclear, although, according to the WSJ, “initial reports indicate the jet wasn’t shot down by enemy fire.” That information was provided by the same U.S. official who suggested that the crash was “likely a result of pilot error.”
There is currently no confirmation that this is the case, however, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces have apparently refuted this, according to a report from CNN, which also notes that the pilot was buried today.
As for the pilot who was killed, Oleksiy Mes, callsign “Moonfish,” was already known as one of the Ukrainian Air Force aviators who was most active in campaigning for the country to receive F-16s. He promoted the cause in Washington, alongside “Juice,” a Ukrainian MiG-29 pilot killed in an accident almost exactly a year ago.
“It is really a super fun jet to fly,” Moonfish had said about the F-16, in a video interview during training on the jet in Denmark earlier this summer. “I’m not saying the MiG I flew before is super boring. But the F-16 is definitely more agile.”
Reports of the death of Mes had emerged earlier this week, including in a statement from Ihor Polishchuk, the mayor of the city of Lutsk, in northwest Ukraine. Initially, there were reports that Mes had been killed on the ground, in one of the Russian missile strikes, while other claims suggested he may have been killed while flying a MiG-29. Regardless, Polishchuk appears to have retracted his original claim, which led to some uncertainty about exactly what happened.
The first F-16s were only confirmed as having arrived in Ukraine in late July, this date apparently having been set as the deadline for the first deliveries.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier this week confirmed that F-16s flew combat missions to try and shoot down cruise missiles and drones launched by Russia in the heavy wave of attacks on Monday.
While Ukraine was almost inevitably going to lose an F-16 at some point, the timing could hardly be worse. According to the WSJ, only six examples of the fighter had arrived in Ukraine as of Monday. The source of this figure is a second unnamed U.S. official. However, with around 85 F-16s having been made available, it’s the loss of an F-16 pilot that will be even more troubling for Ukraine.
According to a late July report in the Washington Post, only six Ukrainian pilots had qualified to fly the F-16 in combat by that point, limiting the number of sorties that could be flown each day. The loss of one of the first Ukrainian pilots to be trained on the F-16, and therefore an experienced combat aviator, will make this an even heavier blow.
Contact the author: thomas@thewarzone.com