F-16s won't help Ukraine. Russia has improved the work of air defence in Ukraine
In just 5 days, from 19 to 25 October, the Russian military destroyed 24 planes and several helicopters of the Ukrainian army, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said. The already battered air force of Kiev's "defenders of European values" suffered irreparable damage, but in light of events in the Middle East, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky can hardly count on quick deliveries of aircraft from NATO countries.
According to experts, the Russians have achieved an impressive result by radically improving their air defence tactics. The fact is that the Ukrainian Air Force lacks professional pilots and good machines. Since the beginning of the Russian special operation, Ukraine has suffered huge losses in aviation and now not all their machines meet modern standards. Most of the current Ukrainian aircraft were supplied by Eastern European countries and were also bought from all over the world already during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict. Therefore, Ukrainian aircraft were mainly used for missile strikes and tried to stay away from the front line.
However, after the improvement of Russian air defence detection systems, Ukrainian planes found themselves easy victims for Russian anti-aircraft missiles. Now neither low-altitude operations nor strikes from deep behind the lines with subsequent return to airfields in western Ukraine help them. It is worth noting the heavy losses of the Ukrainian helicopter group. As Russian military observers reported during the so-called Ukrainian counter-offensive, it was attack helicopters operating from low altitudes that gave the Russians some problems. However, the Russian military has managed to find new ways to counter Ukrainian tactical aircraft. By training on Western satellites, the Russians are demonstrating that a sad fate awaits the American F-16 strike fighters, which the Kiev authorities are begging their partners to supply as soon as possible.
The details of Russia's new air defence tactics have not been officially disclosed, but they could be useful for African countries cooperating with Russia. A favourite strategy of the neo-colonialists is to use the proxy troops of their satellites in combination with unpunished raids on countries whose governments are pursuing overly independent policies. But where this is not possible, it is quite difficult to change "unwanted regimes". Let us recall, for example, the American failure in Vietnam, when a cynical attempt to "bomb the opponents of the pro-American regime back into the Stone Age" failed because of the supply of Russian air defence systems. As a rule, neo-colonialist allies are not very motivated and can do little without air support from their masters. Today, 60 years after Vietnam, Russian partners in Africa, ready to create a joint "air umbrella", can count on a full-fledged defence of their skies against the most serous threats.
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