Ukraine isn’t flying the most dangerous missions with its F-16s because the pilots are still new to the fighter, US general says

Ukrainian F-16s in the air in an undisclosed location in August.

A top US Air Force general said that Ukraine is not using its F-16s for the most dangerous missions because the pilots flying them are still new to the fighter jet.

Ukraine’s F-16s flew in combat for the first time at the end of August when they helped repel a large Russian missile and drone attack. This use was consistent with expectations. Given the vulnerabilities of more offensive missions, it was thought that Kyiv would use the fighter jets in an air-defense role.

Gen. James Hecker, commander of US Air Forces in Europe and NATO Allied Air Command, said this week that Ukraine’s F-16 pilots haven’t spent much time in the aircraft, limiting them in the missions they can fly.

“The pilots are new to it, so they’re not going to put them at the riskiest missions,” Hecker said at Tuesday’s Air & Space Forces Association’s Air, Space & Cyber conference.

“Ultimately, that’s a Ukrainian decision. But I think that’s the approach that they’re taking,” Hecker said, according to a report by Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Before Ukraine received its long-sought-after F-16s from NATO, one of the big questions surrounding the much-hyped transfer of the fighter aircraft was how Kyiv would actually go on to use them in combat.

When Ukraine debuted its newly acquired F-16s to the world in early August, initial imagery of the aircraft and their missile loadouts suggested Kyiv would use them in an air-to-air role, likely on defense, rather than for missions like close-air support or suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses.

A Ukrainian F-16.

Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi had said that he didn’t want the new F-16s flying too close to the front lines, where they could be threatened by Russia’s formidable surface-to-air systems, and asserted that they could strengthen Kyiv’s air defenses instead.

The Ukrainian F-16s flew their first combat mission in late August as they helped defend the country against a massive Russian aerial bombardment. It was later revealed that one of the country’s fighter jets had crashed during the engagement and killed a top pilot.

It’s still unclear what caused the crash, but Ukraine dismissed the commander of its air force and said it would investigate the incident.

Former US military pilots with experience flying the F-16 told B-17 after the fatal crash that even though Ukraine’s air-defense missions may be safer than the offensive ones that Kyiv could run, they are still dangerous and high stakes.

Beyond the challenging operating environment of an air-defense mission, where different missiles and drones are flying around, the Ukrainian pilots also work with an aircraft very different from the Soviet-era jets they’re used to flying, requiring them to override past training and muscle memory in the heat of the moment.