Western Allies Bolster Ukraine’s Air Defense Amid Russian Assaults
The West has promised Ukraine F-16 fighter jets, but the delivery is delayed. A military expert sees the reason in Russian attacks. Kiev – The promise of Western F-16 fighter jets for the Ukrainian Air Force was a ray of hope in the ongoing war in Ukraine. Ukraine is set to receive the multi-role combat aircraft this summer. While Russia is increasing its attacks on Ukrainian military airfields, the delivery of the F-16 is being delayed – for logistical reasons.
F-16 Fighter Jets for the Ukraine War: Putin Delays Delivery Due to Russian Attacks
Not only is Ukraine preparing for the F-16 delivery, but so is Vladimir Putin. On July 1, Russia is said to have destroyed several Ukrainian fighter jets - shortly afterwards, further attacks on the Ukrainian air force followed. Russia's actions not only affect the war, but also bring challenges for the upcoming delivery.
The delay in the F-16 delivery is not due to delivery bottlenecks or a lack of pilots, but to critical preparation. This is currently being complicated by Russian attacks. This is "the main factor why there are ongoing delays in deliveries of the F-16," explained Markus Reisner, Colonel in the Austrian Federal Army, to ntv. Ukraine must first face the logistical problems so that the fighter jets "survive" for as long as possible.
Ukraine's Strategic Preparations to Safeguard F-16 Fighter Jets
While Russia continues to suffer a fighter jet debacle on its own side, Kiev is also facing a problem in the Ukraine war. The fighter jets need "not just one base, they need several bases. So that these F-16s can rotate and always remain hidden from Russian reconnaissance equipment," the military expert explained about the strategy after the delivery of the F-16 fighter jets. Russia's attacks on Ukrainian positions have shown that Putin's troops can also operate deep behind the front. The former spokesman for the Ukrainian Air Force, Yuriy Ihnat, told Reuters that the Russian reconnaissance drones pose a "very serious threat."
The Kremlin could also monitor whether activities at airfields were being carried out to prepare for the F-16. "It would be a massive loss of prestige if the first F-16s arrived in the country and the Russians managed to destroy some of these F-16s with long-range missiles before they were deployed," Reisner stressed. That is why a lot of time had to be invested in logistics.
NATO Allies Enhance Ukraine's Air Defense Systems
The allies have reacted and signed this Tuesday at the NATO meeting in Washington their commitment so that kyiv has five new batteries for the country's defense as soon as possible. In addition, the President of the United States, Joe Biden, announced this Wednesday that the first F-16 fighter jets from Denmark and the Netherlands are on the way and will be operational this summer. These devices, still insufficient to make a difference on the front, can have a defensive use, either to intercept enemy missiles or as a deterrent against possible attacks from Russian fighters.
Even the best defensive shields, made up of localization and tracking radars, plus fixed or mobile batteries of surface-to-air interception missiles, have their cracks. Of the 38 projectiles launched by Russian forces on Monday morning, eight managed to hit Ukrainian soil, several of them in the capital, kyiv, considered the best protected city in the country. More than 30 people lost their lives in this city, the highest number of fatalities since December 2023.
“Every day, Ukraine is exposed to massive attacks by Russian missiles and drones, most of which are destroyed by Ukrainian air defense,” Dmitro Zhmailo, a military expert at the Ukrainian Security and Cooperation Center (USCC), explains in an email. This has been made possible by the well-established system of echelon protection, which includes the use of various types of Western and Soviet-made weapons, from the use of mobile fire groups armed with large-caliber machine guns to combat drones to high-speed systems. technology like the Patriot to destroy cruise and ballistic missiles.
Civilian Impact and the Importance of Air Defense Systems
Civilian deaths cause enormous pain, but this is also followed by a growing feeling of vulnerability among the civilian population. Therein also lies the importance of anti-aircraft defense systems. As detailed this Wednesday by the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense, led by Rustem Umerov, the aid announced by the Alliance includes additional Patriot batteries, the SAMP-T system and components for its operation. In total, kyiv will be able to set up five new anti-aircraft structures. According to USCC analyst estimates, the arrival of 25 more Patriots (or a similar model) would be needed to deal with the current intensity of Russian fire. “They will help protect our cities, civilians and critical infrastructure,” said Umerov about the new allied package, which is borne by the United States, Germany, Romania, the Netherlands and Italy.
Furthermore, and according to this ministry, in the coming months, NATO partners will transfer dozens of tactical air defense systems ―they protect the backs of the Patriot, the jewel in the crown―, such as NASAMS (USA-Norway), HAWK (USA), IRIS (European consortium) and Gepard (Germany). kyiv already has all these models, but they are not enough and they need ammunition.
The Russian attack on the Ojmatdit pediatric hospital, the largest in all of Ukraine, is a good example of the relevance of shielding the country's skies. From the images recorded at the time of the bombing and disseminated on social networks, weapons experts and audiovisual verification projects such as Bellingcat have concluded that the projectile that hit the center's toxicology area was a KH101. It is a cruise missile with speeds of between 700 and 900 kilometers per hour and a target range of up to 2,800 kilometers. That is, Russian forces can launch it from what is now known as their sanctuary, the area out of range for Ukrainian artillery.
KH101 has been analyzed and gutted by forensics on numerous occasions - it contains Western-made components - and yet it continues to reach Ukrainian territory. Cruise missiles pose an extra challenge for defense systems: they go at low altitude, on a flexible, guided route, difficult to intercept. But the defenses that kyiv has to protect itself should be sufficient. However, according to the recording, the fall of the projectile, with a very pronounced downward angle, suggests that it was not traveling at a low altitude.
This Monday, Russia launched a massive combined attack from its Tu-95MS fighters, with cruise projectiles, ballistic missiles and guided bombs. He did it early in the day, which was not usual, and after demanding a great effort from the anti-aircraft batteries in previous days with drones and missiles. It came from almost all sides.
“The Ukrainian Air Force,” notes Zhmailo, “stated that the main difficulty was that Russian missiles flew at extremely low altitudes, sometimes at a height of 50 meters, which greatly complicates the timely detection and destruction of such targets. Additionally, this type of missile has been enhanced with additional protection, including radars and thermal traps.” The USCC analyst adds that the “logic” of the defense does not focus on protecting a hospital, apart, a priori, from the list of objectives of a contender.
This Tuesday, during the opening of the NATO summit in Washington, Biden announced the shipment of the five new defensive systems to be incorporated “immediately” to protect Ukraine. This immediacy, however, generally depends on prior training of the Ukrainian personnel who will use them. Their arrival, however, will contribute to avoiding massacres like Monday's, beyond strengthening the sense of protection of the civilian population. This, temporarily, because they are finite resources that also compete with ammunition production in Russia that continues to grow in factories such as the KH101, which multiplied units by eight last year.
