General Staff: Ukraine needs F-16s to fight the Russian Black Sea Fleet
6.07.2023 - 08:30
Photo: Turkish F-16 flies over ships at NATO exercises, 2022, illustrative.
Ukraine needs long-range and high-precision weapons to effectively fight the Black Sea Fleet of the Russian Federation, in particular, F-16 fighters.
Modern multipurpose fighters of the 4++ generation are one of the options for destroying Russian missile carriers in the Black Sea. Brigadier General Oleksiy Gromov, deputy chief of the Main Operational Department of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, said this in an imterview to Ukrinform.
Fighters 4++ allow the use of aviation means of destruction against sea targets at a range of 200 km or more. If Ukraine receives such F-16 (F-18) aircraft with appropriate equipment and weapons, this will become possible, Gromov said.
He emphasized that the fight against missile weapons is not only the destruction of their carriers, but also damage to the places of their concentration, storage, overloading during transportation.
To attack enemy ships while crossing the sea or on a raid, the latest modifications of anti-ship cruise missiles such as Harpoon, Brimstone, “Neptune” or their analogues are needed. Gromov noted that Ukraine is capable of independently producing appropriate countermeasures and is already doing so.
“This is confirmed by the enemy’s use of its rocket weapon carriers only at distances that protect them from being hit by our strike weapons. In the future, we will increase our strike capabilities in order to eliminate the enemy’s last trump card – spatial advantage, depriving him of the initiative due to the threat of hitting missile carriers in any area of the Black Sea,” the general said.
In addition, in order to fight the Russian fleet at its bases, Ukraine needs ATACMS ballistic missiles or their domestic analogues – Sapsan ballistic missiles.
