FACT-CHECK: Russia Trying to Create False Narrative About Ukrainian F-16s

Russian propaganda continues its campaign attempting to discredit the effectiveness of the Ukrainian Air Force’s F16 fighter aircraft. A pro-Kremlin Telegram channel, whose work is ostensibly aimed at combating anti-Russian fakes, has recently spread a “refutation” of the fact that the F-16 multi-purpose fighters, which Ukraine has already received, are capable of turning the tide of the war in favor of the Ukrainian Armed Forces (AFU). The authors of the post generally call information about the capabilities of these planes Ukrainian and Western fakes.

In their “refutation,” the propagandists refer to a statement made by the commander of US Air Forces in Europe and Africa, General James Hecker, at a conference of the Air & Space Forces Association (AFA), in which he allegedly claimed that the Ukrainian Armed Forces do not plan to send F-16 fighters to risky operations since the pilots are still beginners in flying these warplanes. In addition, propagandists claimed that the F-16s that Ukraine received were conventional Cold War fighters, and their effectiveness on the battlefield was a figment of Ukrainian propaganda.

This is a fake. First, the American general’s words were taken out of context. In fact, the information that the Ukrainian Armed Forces will not currently use F-16s in risky missions is the opinion of James Hacker, who emphasized that the choice remains with Ukraine.

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Secondly, the F-16 aircraft that Ukraine receives from its partners are not obsolete. According to Yehor Cherniev, Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on National Security, Defense and Intelligence and Head of Ukraine’s Permanent Delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the country received a modern modification of the F-16 with the latest avionics, radars for targeting missiles, etc.

In addition, according to specialists from the Defense Express news outlet, the main “feature” of the F-16 is the ECIPS/CJS container, which combines a powerful electronic warfare station and a station for recording the threat of a missile attack. This allows countering aircraft radars and anti-aircraft missile systems, as well as detecting missiles approaching the aircraft.

Interestingly, the latest modernization of Ukrainian F-16s was recently noted even by Alexei Zakharov, whom Russian propagandists call an aviation expert.

He noted that the F-16s delivered to the Ukrainian Armed Forces had been upgraded in the special electronic warfare unit of the US Air Force.

“Specialists with the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron reprogrammed the EW systems of F-16 aircraft from the warehouses of the Air Forces of Denmark and the Netherlands before the fighters were sent to Ukraine,” the statement reads.

Such fakes are aimed at discrediting the Ukrainian Armed Forces, as well as the effectiveness of the weapons that the Ukrainian army receives from its partners. This is not the first time that Russian propaganda has spread fakes about F-16s.

Earlier, Ukrinform refuted a Russian fake, targeting Western audiences, about the improper training of Ukrainian F-16 pilots.