Ukrainian Air Force F-16

Josh_TN said:
VKS undoubtedly has a huge range advantage, and I cannot see the ZSU being able to alter that. The F-16s probably are by far the best A2A equipment they have operated, but coming in distant second place is still dead, even if it’s a huge improvement over MiG-29.

If they still have those ASC-890s and they are datalinked to the F-16s, they could perhaps briefly solve the radar problem (with a lot of risk to a high end, two plane force) but the AIM-120s range limits compared to R-37 is so stark as to make a successful AAM engagement almost hopeless. Certainly it would at a minimum have to be something of an ambush against unsuspecting targets or targets whose escorts were heavily jammed, or both.
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Wonder if Meteor missiles could turn the tide. Of all the planes proposed to Ukraine, only Grippen could carry them. Wonder if there ever were plans to integrate Meteor on Mirage 2000-5s - probably not.
 
Sadly nothing more was done in that attempt after Dassault choose to stop modernizing seriously the 2K to force Rafale down their customer throats.
Given thr 2K kinematics performances, this would have been a serious contender only akin to the Typhoon and Raptor in that scenario.
It is however important to understand that a late AMRAAM would provide similar to better performances given the low drag profile and mass of that missile allowing better launch kinematics.

Let's hope that Ukrainian are working on that.
 
Imo there is no western missile that could even get close to R-37s range in a real world scenario (let alone the new R-97 for Su-57 which i suspect it will be also integrated at least on Su-35 sooner or later), not Meteor, not AIM-120D, probably not even AIM-260 could do that (despite rosy contractor claims/hints of maximum ranges). And i seriously doubt Kiev will ever get AIM-120D let alone AIM-260 in the current circumstances. Probably the only missile that COULD is the AIM-174, but yeah, the chances of Kiev getting both SH and AIM-174 anytime soon are not worth considering atm.
 
I don't think that the old F16s will somehow help with the use of AIM174, except for the launch platform, but as I remember, 2 Saab 340 AEW&C were transferred to Ukraine. And the Saab 340 could be used to guide the AIM174 or Patriot missiles, as the A50 does with the S400 missiles
 

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