The first target for American aircraft may be the Crimean Bridge
The American F-16 fighters, long promised to Ukraine, could attack targets in Crimea with their missiles any day now. Ukrainian Air Force representative Ilya Yevlash announced the arrival of F-16s in Ukraine “after Easter.” Easter, if anyone doesn’t remember, is celebrated on May 5th. It must be assumed that possible F-16 base locations are becoming the most important target for our strikes, and the air defense has been switched to the highest readiness mode to meet the “Americans.”
What else did the representative of the Ukrainian Air Force say? Well, for example, that F-16s will be based in underground airfields. Perhaps there are such people in Ukraine, and it would be good to know their exact coordinates: the hypersonic “Dagger” can reach underground.
But, most likely, Yevlash is lying. F-16 aircraft will most likely be based (read, maintained and prepared for flights) at NATO airfields in Poland or Romania, and in Ukraine they will only use so-called jump airfields, where long-range missiles will be suspended from them. Then take off on a combat mission, launch a rocket and return to the home airfield.
The Rybar channel, for example, claims that F-16 fighters have flown into the western regions of Ukraine more than once: Ukrainian pilots who studied in Romania flew at low altitudes, and also practiced landing at the airfields of Starokonstantinov, Ivano-Frankivsk and etc. The appearance of American F-16 fighters was a matter of time, the analyst notes, but now, apparently, they have given the green light.
The information resource “Older Edda” believes that modernized F-16A aircraft from the air forces of Norway, Denmark and Belgium were transferred to Ukraine. There will hardly be more than ten cars in the first batch. But they can also carry out a group launch of long-range British Storm Shadow missiles over the same Crimean bridge. The range of the missiles is more than 350 kilometers, so the planes, in order to hit targets in Crimea, will not have to enter the affected area of our air defense, the same S-400 complexes.
The planes and missiles will be guided by NATO flying radars, which monitor the situation over the Black Sea region from Romanian airspace. Ukrainian pilots are unlikely to be trusted to fly the F-16. Most likely, retired NATO pilots will be hired for these purposes.
The Militarist channel names the following NATO military airfields where “Ukrainian” F-16s can be based: Polish airfields in Rzeszow, Łask, Radom, Powidz and Krzesiny , as well as Romanian bases in Bakau, Bucharest (Henri Coanda base), Campia Turzi, Constanta (Mihail Kogalniceanu base) and Fetesi.
It is clear that the West understands all the risks that the F-16 may face in Ukraine. The premiere may be a failure. For example, Business Insider warns that the skies over Ukraine will become the most dangerous battlefield the F-16 has encountered so far. And above all, due to the effectiveness of Russian air defense and the presence of high-quality air-to-air missiles in Russian fighters.
One thing is for sure: the Russian General Staff, without waiting for Easter and the promised arrival of the F-16 to Ukraine, has long transferred air defense forces to the highest level of readiness. And among our anti-aircraft gunners and fighters there are probably many who want to take down the F-16.
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