Ukraine's endless problems with NATO-donated fighters! / Installation of 1970s missiles on Ukrainian MiGs and Sukhoi + video and pictures

Ukrainian F-16 fighters started their operations in August 1403, and until today at least 5 cases of this fighter's downing or downing have been officially and confirmed.

Eastern Defense and Security Service - In recent weeks and months, various narratives about the shortage of special ammunition in Ukraine have been published, and the field conditions also show that these reports are correct. At first, stories and reports were published about the severe shortage of interceptor missiles of the Patriot defense system, which was quickly proven by the successive hits of Russian ballistic missiles in different parts of Ukraine, including Kiev. The issue was so clear that CNN showed a picture of an empty launcher of the Patriot system in a report of a fire in Ukraine.

Now, however, a new story has been published by Ukrainian Air Force personnel in an interview with the American media, and that is the severe shortage and rationing of AIM-9 Sidewinder and AIM-120 Amram air-to-air missiles for the F16 fighter fleet of this country's army. But first, it is not bad to have a look at the statistics and figures available in the open sources.

From the delivery with a lot of delay to the problem in the supply of missiles

Basically, the issue of delivery of F-16 fighters to Ukraine is one of the most complicated and controversial issues in this war and has many sidelines and debates. Almost from the very beginning of the Russian attack, the Ukrainians announced that they needed new fighters. Initially, the issue of supplying MiG-29 fighters from Eastern European countries such as Poland was raised, and a number of these fighters were also supplied to Ukraine, but due to their old age and lack of upgrade after the collapse of the former Soviet Union, Ukrainians needed more advanced weapons in the sky.

Ukrainian F16s are all supplied from the former assets of European countries and almost all of them are based on AM and BM series standards. This upgrade was carried out on the first generation F-16s delivered in the 1980s in the 1990s, and included upgrades such as the ability to carry and launch Amram radar guided missiles, modernize the electronic warfare system, add the Link 16 communication link capability, and upgrade the cockpit.

So far, between 40 and 50 F-16 fighter planes have been delivered to Ukraine, mainly from the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway, and of course the Belgians have also promised to transfer 59 F-16 fighter planes to Ukraine from this year to 2029.

Ukrainian F-16 fighters started their operations in August 1403, and until today at least 5 cases of this fighter's downing or downing have been officially and confirmed.

In the discussion of air-to-air missions, Ukrainian F-16 fighters are clearly armed with a combination of AIM-9 short-range thermal guided missiles and AIM 120 active radar guidance, and besides that, a 20 mm 6-tube Vulcan cannon is also located inside the fighter body. The air-to-air missions of Ukrainian F-16s are mainly about conducting combat air patrols in different parts of the country and dealing with suicide drones and Russian cruise missiles.

Ukrainian F-16 fighter in pursuit of the Russian KH 101 cruise missile - images from December 2025

In the discussion of the number of air-to-air missiles delivered to the Ukrainian F-16 fleet, of course, different numbers have been proposed, but it can be said that for the AIM-9 series infrared guided missiles, something around 500 rounds or a little more in the L and M models have been delivered to this country, which of course is not the most advanced model of this missile, the X series. In the discussion of air-to-air missiles of Amram series medium-range radar guidance, the figure delivered to Ukraine is estimated at around 800 missiles. But first of all, pay attention to this issue that these numbers are just estimates based on obvious information and can be different, and also that in the matter of Amram series missiles, not all of them belong to F6 fighters and some of them are also used for the NASAMS ground defense system.

Intensification of problems with increasing speed of Russian drones

The main problem of the Ukrainian fighters started with the introduction of the Gol Shamadani model 4 and 5 suicide drones of the Russians, which uses a turbojet engine and has a speed of nearly 600 kilometers per hour. And of course, the fact that recently the Russians produce almost 3 thousand of these drones per month. This high speed makes it difficult for Ukrainian ground-launched interceptor drones to intercept these Russian drones, and this is where part of the interception pressure is placed on fighters like the F-6.

At the same time, due to the increasing power of Russian suicide drones against forest systems and at the same time using optical targeting systems in the last stage, their accuracy has also increased and even the penetration of one of them into the target area can cause serious damage to the infrastructure or military or urban facilities of Ukraine.

Now, due to the high use of these missiles in interception operations on the one hand, and at the same time the heavy use of air-to-air missiles to counter drones and cruise missiles in the Middle East region in recent years and the pressure on production lines in America, now the Ukrainians are facing a severe shortage in this sector. Recently, for this reason, the use of 20 mm Vulcan cannons by Ukrainian F-16s to target Russian drones has increased, which, of course, due to the short distance between the aircraft and the target, can cause the rest of the target to hit the air inlet of the fighter engine and even cause it to fall.

Interception and destruction of the Russian suicide drone by the 20 mm cannon of the Ukrainian F-16 fighter

Recently, the American news channel Newsmax mentioned this issue in a conversation with the Ukrainian F-16 pilot.

In this interview, the Ukrainian pilot, who introduced himself with the code name "Shabah" and covered his face, confirmed the difficult situation of the country's F-16 air-to-air missiles and asked the Trump administration to equip them with more weapons by increasing the production of air-to-air missiles.

French Mirage 2000; From the lack of pilots to the lack of ammunition

Recently, the French publication Figaro conducted an interview with a Ukrainian pilot who flies the French Mirage 2000 fighters of this country's air force, which contains interesting points. This pilot, who is introduced with the code name "T-Rex", said in an interview that the Mirage 2000 fighter is especially suitable for dealing with Russian drones and cruise missiles, and he himself, for example, succeeded in shooting down 5 Russian suicide drones in one mission.

But problematic issues have also been raised in this interview. First of all, France has provided Ukraine with 5 or 6 fighter jets, of which one crashed last year. Another issue is the lack of trained pilots to fly the Mirage 2000. According to this Ukrainian pilot, there are only 10 Ukrainian pilots trained so far to fly the Mirage 2000, which is why they have to be ready to fly 24 hours a day and perform patrol flights to deal with drones and cruise missiles.

According to T-Rex, Ukraine's Mirage 2000 fighters are facing a severe shortage of both air-to-air missiles and ammunition for the fighter's 30 mm cannon. And he said that in the last month of September, an arms aid package including 30 mm cannon ammunition and MICA air-to-air missiles of the new generation was sent from France to Ukraine, and the Ukrainians used up the shipment in just 2 weeks. He did not mention the number of missiles and bullets sent.

Missiles half a century ago for the eastern fleet of Ukraine

But the issue of the lack of air-to-air missiles is not only related to F-16 or Mirage 2000, and the recent images of a successful interception of a Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter against a Ukrainian cruise missile show the use of the R-60 infrared guided missile made by the former Soviet Union in the 1970s.

Eastern Ukrainian fighters in the role of air combat, namely MiG-29 and Sukhoi 27, in air combat and patrol flights, usually flew with a combination of R-73 and R-27 missiles, and now the sighting of R-60 missiles on the Ukrainian MiG-29 shows that the status of short-range R-73 missiles in the Ukrainian Air Force is also not suitable.

Interception and destruction of the Russian cruise missile by the R-60 air-to-air missile fired from the Ukrainian MiG-29

Now, on the eve of the winter season in Ukraine and the intensification of Russian missile and drone attacks, it is not clear how the Ukrainians want to defend themselves against the Russians without Patriot missiles and a severe shortage of air-to-air missiles.