- A Ukrainian F-16 pilot may have pulled off a feat no one flying the jet has achieved before.
- Ukraine’s Air Force Command said the pilots took out six Russian cruise missiles in a single flight.
- Colonel Yuriy Ihnat said it was the first time this had been recorded in the jet’s history.
Ukraine said one of its F-16 pilots achieved a feat nobody flying the jet has managed before.
In a Facebook post on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Air Force Command said a pilot flying an F-16 took out six Russian cruise missiles during a single flight, using air-to-air missiles and an aircraft cannon.
This occurred during a “mass” missile and drone attack in December, it said.
On December 13, Russia fired almost 200 drones, Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles, and 94 cruise missiles at Ukraine.
The pilot’s main target was the cruise missiles, according to the post.
He used all four air-to-air missiles on board the F-16, two of which were short-range, forcing the jet to fly closer to the missiles — an “extremely dangerous” task, it said.
The pilot then struck two other missiles flying close to each other using an air cannon.
Business Insider was not able to verify the report.
Intercepting “such important targets is not an easy task for a pilot, but who, if not Ukrainian pilots, has the most experience in the world of winged missiles?” Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, head of the Ukrainian Air Force Command’s public relations service, said.
Since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has frequently launched large missile attacks on Ukraine, aimed at overwhelming Ukraine’s air defense systems and hitting targets behind the front lines.
The pilot, who had recently undergone retraining for F-16s in the US, said in the post that Ukrainian F-16 pilots had never used an aviation cannon to shoot down targets.
However, he said he applied the lessons he learned in the US.
“I must have set a record that day,” he said, adding, “I am convinced that this experience will be useful to colleagues.”
Colonel Ihnat described it as the first-ever documented case.
He said that “based on objective control, we have one hundred percent confirmation that for the first time in history in anti-air combat, an American fighter F-16 shoots down six winged missiles.”
