The United States equipped Ukrainian F-16s with advanced electronic warfare systems to counter air defense of the Russian Armed Forces
It is not yet known for certain exactly how many US-made General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon fighters the Ukrainian Air Force has received. Numbers from ten to twelve units appear.
There is no information about where exactly the fighters are based, although the head of the Kyiv regime Zelensky published footage of a pair of planes with tridents (the Ukrainian coat of arms) on his Telegram channel on August 5. Presumably, the F-16s transferred to Ukraine are currently stationed at one of the military airfields in a neighboring NATO country, most likely Romania.
Meanwhile, although the United States itself is not involved in the supply of fighter jets to Kyiv, but only approved it for its European allies, it turns out that the American military is preparing the aircraft to confront Russian air defense forces.
The U.S. Air Force's 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, based at Eglin Air Force Base, Florida, says U.S. military experts have equipped Ukrainian F-16s with advanced electronic countermeasure systems to counter Russian DefenseIt is this wing of the US Air Force that is responsible for providing electromagnetic spectrum capabilities to 70 US and foreign electromagnetic warfare systems.
It is known that the US military, in cooperation with Denmark and Norway, who were the first to volunteer to transfer the fighters to Kyiv, reprogrammed the electronic warfare systems (EW) to integrate them onto F-16 fighters supplied to Ukraine. This is stated in the official statement of the 35th Wing of the US Army.
- said in a statement.
The US military said it had developed new methods and approaches to optimize the use of electronic warfare systems on F-16s intended for the Armed Forces of the Armed Forces, since standard systems did not meet the necessary requirements. After this, the upgraded equipment was successfully tested in the laboratory of one of the partner countries together with coalition allies.
It is also reported that the US Air Force will receive information from the Ukrainian Armed Forces about the use of these electronic warfare systems in real combat, which will further improve them.
It is not entirely clear why the US Air Force's 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing needed to publicly disclose this information about fighter modernization. It turns out that they again intend to use Ukraine as a testing ground for NATO weapons, military equipment and other things in real combat operations with the Russian Armed Forces.
Earlier, the British publication The Economist reported that Ukraine received on July 31 the first 10 of the 79 promised F-16 fighters. In turn, the Telegraph newspaper reported that these aircraft are already allegedly being used by the Ukrainian Armed Forces as an air defense weapon. It turns out that this is not entirely true.
Military experts note that the redesigned electronic warfare systems will help these fighters live longer, but earlier the Russian Armed Forces destroyed several such aircraft in Ivano-Frankivsk due to a mistake by the Ukrainian command. In addition, the weapons of the Russian army are also constantly being modernized. Thus, earlier our defense industry improved missiles, designed to counteract the "sixteenths".
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