Ukraine will be able to use Danish and Dutch F-16s to strike into Russia, while Belgium is saying only for use in 1991-border Ukraine.

Archived version: https://archive.ph/Iv4Fu

  • Skua@kbin.social
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    26 days ago

    Nice gesture but why would Ukraine risk losing their new toys on adventurism where is work closer to to home to be done.

    Where the frontline is close to the official border, Russia is able to keep its artillery and logistics on the Russian side of the border where Ukraine is not allowed to use half of its equipment. Russia’s ongoing Kharkiv offensive is an example of this

    Now if they were supplying rockets with ranges over 200km

    France and Britain have been supplying the storm shadow missile, which has almost three times that range. Ukraine has been launching it from its own Su-24 aircraft, but those are very old and there aren’t a lot of them left. The F-16 could be a good new platform to launch them from. As I understand it, storm shadow and F-16 are not compatible out of the box and would need some modification, but the same was true for the Su-24 and that appears to have worked out

    • applepie@kbin.social
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      26 days ago

      Would Ukraine be able to fly planes close enough to strike within Russia given Russian strong anti air set up?

      Can Ukraine use stormshadows within Russia?

      • Skua@kbin.social
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        26 days ago

        Well they’ve been flying Su-24s, and the F-16s certainly shouldn’t be any less capable than those for this sort of thing

        Can Ukraine use stormshadows within Russia?

        The UK okayed it a couple of weeks ago, France this week

          • Skua@kbin.social
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            26 days ago

            Oh, that I’m not sure of. I misunderstood what you were asking, sorry about that

            While I don’t know about actual jets launching munitions over Russian airspace, Ukraine did successfully hit a Shahed drone factory over 1,000 km from the Russia-Ukraine border with what appears to have been one of these light aircraft converted to be unmanned. So Russia’s air defence is definitely not impenetrable.

            • applepie@kbin.social
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              26 days ago

              Got it. I am aware of Ukraine striking deep into Russia but it has always been with their own tools.

              But back original all premises, I still doubt Ukraine would risk f16 getting that close to Russian air defense.

              Western missile are perfect for the job. Now that UK and fr on board, US must also approve and deliver a large batch for the party.

              Great opportunity to disrupt Russian ops near kharkiv IMHO and retaliate for NK missiles used there.