Ukraine Loses Third F-16, Second in Two Months

The second F-16 lost on interception duty. Using F-16s to chase down Shaheed drones seems to be costly. Another F-16 was lost in an attempted glide-bombing of the Russian lines in Sumy last month.

A Ukrainian F-16 Viper pilot repelling Russian air attacks ejected before his donated aircraft crashed, the Ukrainian Air Force said Friday. The incident took place about 3:30 a.m. local time.

“According to preliminary data, the pilot destroyed three air targets and was working on the fourth, using an aircraft cannon,” the Ukrainian Air Force stated on Telegram. “However, an emergency situation arose on board. The pilot took the plane away from the settlement and successfully ejected.”

The nature of the emergency remains unclear.

“Thanks to the prompt work of the search and rescue team, the pilot was quickly found and evacuated,” the Air Force added. “The pilot’s well-being is satisfactory, he is in a safe place, his life and health are not in danger. A commission has been appointed to objectively clarify all the circumstances, and it has already begun work.”

While we don’t yet know what caused the crash, firing a fighter’s gun against small and possibly slow-moving targets — such as cruise missiles and drones — is far more dangerous than many realize, a topic we have discussed frequently in the past. Flying into the target is a real risk, among other factors. This is especially true at night.

From an earlier story: “The speed and engagement dynamics involved can result in controlled flight into the ground below as well as ramming into the very object you are trying to shoot down. There is also the danger of the grenade-like cannon rounds impacting the ground below over a relatively wide area, potentially killing innocent people. Doing it at night is a whole other level of danger.”

For Ukraine, this is at least the third loss of a Viper.

⚡️Fully loaded F-16 somewhere over Ukraine pic.twitter.com/UCkwVaBtbj

— War Monitor (@WarMonitors) February 9, 2025

In April, Ukrainian F-16 pilot Pavlo Ivanov, 26, “was killed in battle defending his native land from the invaders,” the Ukrainian Air Force stated at the time. “All the circumstances of the tragedy are established by the interdepartmental commission, which has already begun its work.”

In August 2024, F-16 pilot Oleksiy Mes died during Russia’s largest aerial barrage of the war. Before his F-16 went down, Mes, who went by the call sign “Moonfish,” shot down three Russian cruise missiles and a one-way attack drone, Ukrainian Air Force Command West said on Facebook at the time.

In all, around 85 operational F-16s have now been promised to Ukraine. That total includes 24 from the Netherlands, 19 from Denmark, and 12 from Norway (with the same country providing 10 more that will be used for spare parts), while Belgium says it will supply 30. Of this grand total, it should be noted that at least some of the jets are not being sent to Ukraine but are instead being used for training Ukrainian pilots, primarily at the European F-16 Training Center (EFTC) in Romania. The U.S. is now donating airframes it says are not airworthy, which you can read more about here.

Source: The War Zone