You ain’t seen nothing yet. When the F-16s show up Ukraine will finally able to use all three modes of the NATO AG-88 HARM. Right now they are restricted to the Pre-Briefed mode where they have to program the target before take-off. However when launched from the F-16 the AG-88 can also use Target of Opportunity Mode and Self Protect Mode.
Self Protect mode uses the F-16s sensor package to find active Radar Installations and alert the pilot there is a threat to the aircraft in the area. Target of Opportunity mode does the same thing but it uses the AG-88’s sensors instead of the aircraft’s sensors and will alert that it has a target even if the radar isn’t a direct threat to the aircraft.
The SP and TOO modes of the AGM-88 allow an F-16 to perform SEAD / Wild Weasel missions. At that point lots and lots of Russian air defense systems are going to go poof which will free Ukraine to run its native Jet Fighter fleet farther into occupied territory and allow them to more safely perform CAS missions to support ground troops.
It’s not a war winner on its own but it will give them more freedom to support combined arms operations, allowing them to hopefully crack Russian ground defenses with less loss of men and materials.
Let me start by saying that i have no idea about what i am talking about.
The only reason F-16 werent dropping like flies, other than the fact that the US mostly fought people whose biggest antiair weapon was a kalasnikov, was that the US used a billion stealth bombers, fighters and cruise missiles to bomb everything that can shoot or detect airplanes.
This would not be the case in Ukraine. And while you can use F-16 for SEAD, i am not so sure that can work against russian anti-air, which is considered the best in the world and whose whole tech history was about shooting down planes similar to F-16. Russian antiair has stronger radar systems that can see further and can shoot further than F-16 with a HARM.
F-16 wont have a stealth plane or awacs guiding them and detecting targets. They have to do everything on their own, which means that you have to risk them.
The biggest advantage of the F-16 is the ability to use NATO weapons. But they are not a wunderwaffe, they will get shot down. How often they will get shot down really depends on how you use them. If you afk them in the back, lobbing vbr air to air missiles to russian planes/missiles, they will be safer. If you are using them for SEAD, then the hunter will often become the hunted.
There is a reason why no russian or ukrainian planes are flying in Ukraine(near the front). The F-16 doesnt have any special ability to dodge the s400/s300 in comparison to those planes.
The biggest advantage of the F-16 is the ability to use NATO weapons. But they are not a wunderwaffe, they will get shot down.
But they are airplanes. Ukraine has too few planes overall. We should send even more so they can use them in the more risky missions rather than nursing them only for the easy things.
You ain’t seen nothing yet. When the F-16s show up Ukraine will finally able to use all three modes of the NATO AG-88 HARM. Right now they are restricted to the Pre-Briefed mode where they have to program the target before take-off. However when launched from the F-16 the AG-88 can also use Target of Opportunity Mode and Self Protect Mode.
Self Protect mode uses the F-16s sensor package to find active Radar Installations and alert the pilot there is a threat to the aircraft in the area. Target of Opportunity mode does the same thing but it uses the AG-88’s sensors instead of the aircraft’s sensors and will alert that it has a target even if the radar isn’t a direct threat to the aircraft.
The SP and TOO modes of the AGM-88 allow an F-16 to perform SEAD / Wild Weasel missions. At that point lots and lots of Russian air defense systems are going to go poof which will free Ukraine to run its native Jet Fighter fleet farther into occupied territory and allow them to more safely perform CAS missions to support ground troops.
It’s not a war winner on its own but it will give them more freedom to support combined arms operations, allowing them to hopefully crack Russian ground defenses with less loss of men and materials.
Let me start by saying that i have no idea about what i am talking about.
The only reason F-16 werent dropping like flies, other than the fact that the US mostly fought people whose biggest antiair weapon was a kalasnikov, was that the US used a billion stealth bombers, fighters and cruise missiles to bomb everything that can shoot or detect airplanes.
This would not be the case in Ukraine. And while you can use F-16 for SEAD, i am not so sure that can work against russian anti-air, which is considered the best in the world and whose whole tech history was about shooting down planes similar to F-16. Russian antiair has stronger radar systems that can see further and can shoot further than F-16 with a HARM.
F-16 wont have a stealth plane or awacs guiding them and detecting targets. They have to do everything on their own, which means that you have to risk them.
The biggest advantage of the F-16 is the ability to use NATO weapons. But they are not a wunderwaffe, they will get shot down. How often they will get shot down really depends on how you use them. If you afk them in the back, lobbing vbr air to air missiles to russian planes/missiles, they will be safer. If you are using them for SEAD, then the hunter will often become the hunted.
There is a reason why no russian or ukrainian planes are flying in Ukraine(near the front). The F-16 doesnt have any special ability to dodge the s400/s300 in comparison to those planes.
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But they are airplanes. Ukraine has too few planes overall. We should send even more so they can use them in the more risky missions rather than nursing them only for the easy things.
They will basically turn Russian radar installations into practice targets.
That’s the hope. So far western hardware from the late Cold War era has matched up very favorably with the stuff that the Soviets and Russians built.