Former General of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Ihor Kryvonos, expressed his views on the use of military equipment, in particular F-16 aircraft, in the context of the conflict with Russia. In his statement, he called for not considering the F-16 as a “miracle weapon” and proposed an alternative approach to their takeoff, taking into account the circumstances that military airfields may be under threat from Russian strikes.
He recalls that against any Western supplies, "the Russians quite quickly found some kind of countermeasure.".
“The Russians worked effectively and purposefully to develop responses. Inventing tactics to counter these aircraft, actively using new electronic warfare systems – unfortunately, Russia has been the best in the world in the field of electronic warfare for a long time. The situation (after the arrival of the F-16 – Ed.) will become much better, but don’t think that we will reach Sevastopol by the beginning of September,” said Kryvonos.
He doubted that Ukraine would be able to service a large number of such aircraft (Zelenskyy said the day before yesterday that at least 128 were needed). According to him, each aircraft requires at least two pilots, and preferably 3-4.
“Now do the math, multiply 120 by two, 240 pilots. It’s good if it’s in English. And this is taking into account the fact that we have suffered quite serious losses in pilots over the last two years of the war,” says the ex-general. In addition, according to him, “we need aviation engineers and technicians who will service a huge number of these aircraft.”.
In his opinion, also "all Ukrainian roads, all highways should be prepared according to the system, as, for example, exists in the same Sweden, where all roads are prepared. Swedish highways are a continuous Swedish airfield. And it is quite difficult to find, to get to, because on every 50 km section there are waiting areas, landing areas.".
He called for "making Ukrainian roads like an airfield.".
