One of Ukraine’s first F-16 pilots said they had to create new tactics for the fighter because the West’s original training didn’t fit the war against Russia.
Ukraine’s air force released a video interview on Monday with the pilot, whose name wasn’t disclosed, in which he spoke about the F-16 Fighting Falcon’s performance and the early challenges he faced when learning to fly the aircraft.
The pilot said he flew Kyiv’s Soviet-made combat aircraft in the initial days of Russia’s full-scale invasion, before being sent abroad to train to fly the F-16s donated by the West.
Once he returned to the war, he and his fellow pilots “encountered reality,” he said.
“The tactics that we were taught abroad do not entirely fit the war we have here, because those tactics are also based on wars in which the partners previously took part,” the pilot said. “And this war is fundamentally different from those wars.”
Ukrainian pilots had to devise their own tactics, he said.
“How we would destroy cruise missiles, strike drones, how we would fight with the enemy near the line of combat contact,” the pilot added.
Ukraine’s Western allies have been taking note of some of those lessons, he added.
“When the partners see our effectiveness, they understand how, in our limited conditions, we are able to carry out flights with such effectiveness,” he said. “And they even, I would say, learn from us. They learn the tactics and adjust the tactics that they taught us when we were abroad.”
The pilot didn’t go into exact detail about the types of new tactics Ukrainians developed for the F-16, but spoke about a daring maneuver he recently conducted in the Donbas region.
He said his three-ship formation had encountered heavily saturated Russian defenses, including surface-to-air missile systems and unspecified air assets, that “did not allow us the possibility to approach” their target.
“We drew two missiles from the enemy, because there were two launches from different directions, and we gave the opportunity for our strike aircraft to destroy the target,” he said.
The pilot said the entire group returned safely after the mission.
Switching from Soviet to NATO planes
Ukraine has officially received 44 of the 87 F-16s that European nations have promised to donate to Kyiv. Its first crews for the American-made aircraft were trained in Romania, where a coalition of NATO member states, including the US, worked to teach Ukrainian pilots, technicians, and other staff to service and fly the planes.
In his interview, the pilot said the language barrier was one of his biggest challenges when learning to fly the F-16, and that while waiting to be sent abroad for training, he studied English grammar, colloquial language, and aviation terms as he rested between combat flights.
“It was very hard, because after a combat sortie, as a rule, a pilot has to rest, because he does not know whether at some moment he might fly again,” he said.
The first of Ukraine’s F-16s entered the war in August 2024 and were primarily used for defensive purposes against strike drones and cruise missiles.
Kyiv has since lost four of the aircraft, but its pilots have also been recorded achieving notable feats, including one reportedly destroying six missiles in a single flight.
The interviewed pilot praised the F-16 as a fighter that performs “flawlessly,” but also said he wished for the more advanced, Block 70/72 version of the aircraft. These latest iterations have been upgraded with fifth-generation technology, including powerful radars with stronger jamming resistance and a modernized cockpit.
“If we were given such an opportunity to carry out tasks on these aircraft, I think that in our tally there would be not only destroyed strike drones and cruise missiles, but also enemy aircraft that are carrying out tasks along the line of combat contact,” he said.
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