Key Points and Summary – The Ukrainian Air Force suffered a significant blow on June 29 with the combat loss of its fourth F-16 fighter and the death of its highly experienced pilot, Lt. Col. Maksym Ustymenko.
-He was killed while heroically defending against one of the largest Russian aerial assaults of the war, reportedly downing seven targets before his aircraft was damaged.
-His death highlights the immense pressure on Ukraine’s small cadre of Western-trained pilots.
-The F-16 training program is a major challenge, requiring pilots to overcome language barriers and adapt from Soviet-era aircraft to the F-16’s complex, fly-by-wire systems.
Ukraine’s Air Force Loses a Pilot and a Fourth F-16 Fighter
On June 29, the Ukrainian Air Force (PSU) lost its fourth F-16 aircraft and the third in the past three months. The pilot, one of the Ukrainian force’s most experienced in operating the jet, 1st Class Lt. Col. Maksym Ustymenko, died when the aircraft he was flying was defending Ukraine’s airspace from one of the largest assaults by Russia of the entire war.
He was the third pilot to be killed flying an F-16 on air defense missions.
Russia had launched a massive aerial assault involving hundreds of drones and scores of missiles overnight, the Ukrainian military stated on Sunday. The PSU spokesman said Ustymenko “did everything he could to steer the aircraft away from a populated area, but he did not have time to eject.”
“The pilot used all of his onboard weapons and shot down seven air targets. While shooting down the last one, his aircraft was damaged and began to lose altitude,” the Air Force said on the PSU’s Telegram messaging platform.
According to Ukrainian military sources, the Russian attack involved 477 drones and 60 missiles of various types against Ukraine overnight, with the PSU and Air Defense Forces (PPO) destroying 211 of the drones and 38 missiles.
Russia launched the strikes against civilian targets, which has become typical, but on this occasion, most of the cities hit were in the far western regions of Ukraine. Ukraine’s military said it recorded the air strikes in six locations.
More Concentrated Air Assaults
Russia has sharply increased its airborne attacks against Ukraine in recent weeks and has been launching hundreds of drones and missiles nearly every night.
However, these attacks are not just involving larger numbers of drones and missiles; they are also becoming more frequent. In an added complication, the attacks have proven to be more concentrated and coordinated, making them increasingly challenging to counter.
One change in Russian tactics is that these attacks are being launched at higher altitudes, which puts them out of range of most anti-aircraft guns, or what aviators refer to as “Triple-A.” This limits the methods for intercepting them to either ground-launched air defense missiles or air-to-air weapons fired by fighter jets, such as the F-16s.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy stated on Sunday that in the past week alone, Russia had launched more than 114 missiles, over 1270 drones, and nearly 1100 glide bombs against Ukrainian cities.
Again, most of these munitions are landing on civilian population centers.
Very little effort appears to have been made by the Russians to make sure they are targeting strictly military installations.
Losing Irreplaceable F-16 Fighter Pilots and Training New Ones
Ustymenko’s death is a significant loss for the PSU, as only a limited number of Ukraine’s most talented pilots have been trained on the F-16s.
Although the jets are second-hand models from Denmark and other donor nations—older F-16A/B Block 15-series that were later upgraded—they remain the most advanced fighters in the PSU inventory.
The complication with losing pilots trained on this aircraft type is that the training syllabus is very specialized. This can only be completed by pilots who are fluent in English and requires months of “book-work” and hours of flying to become rated on the US jet.
The F-16’s side-stick controller is one of the challenges for the Ukrainian pilots. They had all been trained on and were accustomed to the standard centre-stick controls, which are used in all Russian-design Mikoyan MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-24, Su-25, and Su-27 aircraft that the PSU inherited from the Soviet era.
“It means learning how to fly again,” said one of the Ukrainian defense industry officials supporting the training program.
The other challenge is that the side-stick is linked to a fly-by-wire flight control system that lacks the level of haptic feedback to the pilot that the hydromechanical controls of the Russian-made jets they are accustomed to have. Another adjustment that pilots must become accustomed to.
In January, Ukraine’s government announced a streamlining of the F-16 training program to produce more new pilots more quickly. The PSU currently has more F-16s than pilots who can operate them, so the training pipeline is not keeping pace.
“The basic training program needs to be optimized. This will enable us to train more pilots to defend our country,” Deputy Defence Minister Serhiy Melnkyk said at the time. “Ukrainian combat aviation must eventually gain air superiority, as this paves the way for the success of our actions on the front line.”
However, at the time, there were airpower experts who were concerned that the attempt to reduce the training time could eventually backfire.
These experts have warned that the F-16 and its weapons systems are far more complex than the Soviet-era jets used by Ukraine. Training program graduates may not be adequately prepared to take the aircraft into combat, they say.
You Need to Know English to Fly F-16 Fighter
The chief obstacle in preparing these pilots so far has been language training. The cockpit audio system of the F-16 that provides important warning messages to the pilot only “speaks” English.
Any pilots not completely fluent in the language will be handicapped—and possibly also in danger—if they lack the required level of fluency.
About the Author
Reuben F. Johnson is a survivor of the February 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine and is an Expert on Foreign Military Affairs and Director of the Asian Research Centre with the Fundacja im. Kazimierza Pułaskiego in Warsaw. He has been a consultant to the Pentagon, several NATO governments and the Australian government in the fields of defense technology and weapon systems design. Over the past 30 years he has resided in and reported from Russia, Ukraine, Poland, Brazil, the People’s Republic of China and Australia.
Submarines Like No Other
Japan Might Have a Stealth Submarine the U.S. Navy Would Love
