Cruise missile killer becomes an Ace in a day!
January 8, 2025
Yurii Ihnat, the Head of the Communications Department at the Ukrainian Air Force Command revealed that a Ukrainian F-16 fighter pilot had shot down six Russian cruise missiles during a single combat sortie on the morning of 13 December 2024. Russia mounted a mass aerial strike involving almost 200 drones and 94 missiles. The F-16 pilot used four air-to-air missiles and the fighter’s cannon to accomplish this unprecedented feat.
The pilot himself said that he had approached a group of cruise missiles and, despite their electronic warfare countermeasures, he managed to lock on to targets. The F-16 reportedly shot down one pair of Russian missiles with his AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range missiles and then downed another pair with short-range AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles.
Without further missiles and low on fuel, the pilot was then directed to return to base, but spotted another missile heading toward Kyiv at more than 650 kilometres per hour. He intercepted this target and opened fire with his M61A1 cannon.
“A few bursts from the cannon — and an explosion… then another one! ‘A secondary detonation,’ I thought, but, as it turned out, there were two missiles,” the pilot said, adding that he had done everything as he had been taught by US instructors.
According to the Air Force Command, Ukrainian pilots had learned how to shoot down missiles with their cannon in simulators in the US but have never attempted it during actual combat missions.
The F-16 has been extensively used against Russian UAVs and missiles, but has not had the opportunity to ‘tangle’ with Russian fighters. Though many expected the F-16 to have a revolutionary impact on the air war, this was probably unrealistic.
Informed sources suggest that the APG-66v2(a) radar of the F-16MLU standard aircraft supplied to Ukraine can produce a target quality track file at circa 58-60 nm against a ‘Flanker’-sized target, while the Irbis PESA radar used by Russian Su-27SM3s can probably get a weapons quality track at about 60-70 nm against a fighter-sized target – with a much longer detection range.
The failure to provide an AESA radar for the F-16s (as is being retrofitted to USAF F-16s under the PoBIT programme, and as used on the Block 70 F-16 and F-16V upgrade) could prove decisive. The AN/APG-83 AESA radar used by these later F-16s would give a target quality track file at ranges in excess of 100 nm.
