War in Ukraine: could the effectiveness of the F-16s, long awaited by kyiv, be limited by Russian air defenses ?

Volodymyr Zelensky en visite en Belgique avec des F-16 le 28 mai 2024. MAXPPP – OLIVIER HOSLET

The American F-16 combat planes which will be delivered to Ukraine, long awaited by Volodymyr Zelensky, may not be as effective as expected.

While American aid was granted to Ukraine, including American F-16 fighters. Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed the announcement of the strengthening of his air defense. But Russia would have found a solution to weaken the field of action and the impact of these planes, reports Forbes.

A scope problem

If the debate around sending F-16 planes to Kiev troops has lasted for a while, they will indeed arrive in Ukrainian territory. If their effectiveness is formidable, the Russian army does everything possible to limit the latter, and it seems that it has succeeded.

The Kremlin's air defenses will force the F-16s to fly at low altitude, or even very low, indicates the magazine Géo. It is the S-400s, this Russian mobile system targeted by Ukraine, which could limit the maximum exploitation of the F-16s.

"At such low altitudes, missiles start in dense air with high aerodynamic drag and must climb against gravity to reach the altitudes where their targets. When their rocket engine shut down after the first few seconds of flight, they did not gain as much speed or altitude as if they had been launched from a fighter flying in thin air at high altitude and at supersonic speeds, and therefore only have a relatively short effective range", explains  le Royal United Services Institute.

Meteor missiles could reach a long range, but unfortunately they are incompatible with American fighters. This new problem shows all the strategic and tactical difficulty of the conflict between the two countries.