Ukrainian F-16 pilot shoots down six missiles in one sortie: aviation expert explains what it means
Date: 2025-01-08 Author: Кирило Загоруйко Categories: WAR
Thanks to professionalism, courage and the transition to NATO standards, the Ukrainian pilot managed to effectively use all the capabilities of the F-16 fighter and set a record for shooting down missiles in one sortie.
Aviation expert and deputy general director of the company producing electronic warfare equipment Anatoly Khrapchinsky said this on the air of the telethon. Confirmation that Ukrainian pilots are switching to NATO standards are precisely such situations when the decision to carry out a combat mission remains with the pilot:
"The pilot must clear a separate sector of air targets, but he decides on his own how to do this. The introduction of such actions by pilots takes us to a new professional level of using modern technology."
He noted that the work of Russian and Soviet aviation involves centralized control of combat by the command, not the pilot: "I would say that this is the first effective use. This is what most American pilots talked about when they talked about what we would encounter when implementing these aircraft in the Ukrainian Air Force," Khrapchinsky added.
According to the expert, the Air Force also "very carefully, but conveniently" hinted that Ukraine uses the F-16 exclusively for defense - as an air defense.
"The aircraft that we received in the first batch are now more suitable as an aviation component of air defense. In the future, we can talk about using other means, other aircraft, which we will receive to counter enemy aviation along the border line or in a combat clash," he said.
