This article is published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report part of Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN), and is complimentary through Jan 14, 2026. For information on becoming an AWIN Member to access more content like this, click here.
The Ukrainian Air Force claims to have shot down around 1,000 Russian cruise missiles and one-way attack drones with Lockheed Martin F-16s donated by allies.
In a 12-min. video published by the Ukrainian Air Force online, a Ukrainian F-16 pilot describes how the fighters transferred from Belgium, Denmark and the Netherlands have been primarily used in the air defense role, supporting ground-based air defenses against Russian missile attacks.
The F-16 was inducted into the Ukrainian Air Force in August 2024 following a European-led effort to secure U.S. permission to transfer the aircraft to the war-torn country and take some of the workload off the war-weary, Soviet-era aircraft that Kyiv still has in service.
Learning to fly and fight in the F-16 was a challenge, the pilot says, in part because where the training took place was in congested airspace in Western Europe with instructor pilots who did not speak Ukrainian.
“Most of us have learned the post-Soviet system of education and flying, and we had to switch to Western standards ... it is difficult to master new techniques,” the pilot said.
Furthermore, the tactics taught to the Ukrainian pilots were “not quite suitable for the war in our country” because they were based on previous conflicts in which they had worked with partners.
“This war is fundamentally different from those wars,” the pilot added.
Ukrainian pilots developed their own tactics for downing cruise missiles and one-way attack drones, as well as operations near the front line, where Russian ground-based air defense systems are on alert and Russian fighters on combat air patrol are on the prowl.
Both these threats limit how the Ukrainians can operate their F-16s, with the aircraft largely operating at low level. He said Russian fighters—including the Sukhoi Su-35, Mikoyan MiG-31 and the new Su-57—often sit waiting at high altitude for incoming Ukrainian attacks on the front line.
The F-16s have also performed some 1,600 ground-attack missions and have also run the gauntlet of Russian air defense systems as a distraction to allow airstrikes by other Ukrainian Air Force aircraft.
But the primary mission is air defense, and the pilot notes that on one sortie a pilot claimed to have engaged six cruise missiles and seven drones, with the latter likely downed using the aircraft’s internal gun.
The video shows heavily redacted imagery of the F-16s in flight, with censors paying particular attention to the under-fuselage centerline pylon which many F-16 operators used to fit an electronic countermeasures pod; it is likely that this is what is being redacted in the images.
So far, Ukrainian F-16s have been noted carrying both Sidewinder and Amraam missiles. But more recently, some have been equipped with laser targeting pods—potentially to enable the use of laser-guided rockets to provide a low-cost means of engaging one-way attack drones.
Earlier this week, reports emerged that France may also have supplied Ukraine with the MBDA Mica air-to-air missiles to equip the Mirage 2000s, in addition to the MBDA Magic 2 air-to-air missile. A picture published online shows at least one Mica fitted to the belly pylon of a Mirage 2000 in Ukraine, but its unclear if the weapons are regularly fitted and if Ukraine has access to large stocks of the weapons.
Related Content
