Ukraine downed a Russian Su-35 on July 8th using a three-aircraft F-16 ambush and a repositioned Patriot battery, exploiting a Russian intercept habit that had worked every time, until Ukraine built the entire trap around it. Russian military bloggers, including Fighterbomber, confirmed the loss and described it themselves: three aircraft plus a Patriot against one of theirs. Ukraine didn’t have to out-fly the Su-35. It just out-thought the pilot flying it.
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“By the time the geometry of the fight stopped being what he thought it was, a missile was already seconds from impact. Russia lost its best air superiority fighter to a tactic built entirely out of russia’s own confidence. Ukraine didn’t need better hardware, it just needed to understand a decision cycle well enough to write the script a russian pilot would follow.”
That was a lot more informative and interesting than I expected. Thanks for the invidious link!
The F-16 platform was first built in 1976 and is still fucking up the russkies, imagine if we gave them 35s and help from the 22s
Also if Ukraine was just given more F16s of more updated types that would have helped massively.
Getting them type rated on the platform was a huge step, just being able to use NATO compliant air weapons is another. Now that the first pilot class is actively flying sorties, and 🤞 the fucking GOP doesn’t tank it, they will be much more effective the more they train and use the jets.
Welcome to the Sidewinder, Ivan, not the first time we’ve met.
I wonder how many times they’ll be able to use this trick before Russia stops using the same pattern.