"Debris" downed an F-16, apparently.

>>63915569 (OP)
F-16 is an old design and they will get more.

Buck fever is bad in a hunter, is dangerous in a fighter pilot. Debris from close up engagements on drones with large warheads is a real thing, they've lost at least one other F-16 to it as well as at least one MiG-29. The first Shahed attack on Israel by Iran when the first IDF pilots got to the drone field, they immediately relayed to the flights behind them to use missiles and not cannon for the same reason - they nearly had a couple take frag.

Fighter jets in pursuit of a drone with a gun in a fixed-plane pretty much have to follow through where the explosion is if they're too close - you'll note most of the interceptions of drones by helicopters, whether Ukrainian or Israeli, are typically done from above the drone and to one side.

>>63915588

Bait used to be believable.

>>63915588
>>63915629

>>63915582
F-16 pilots are recent and they won't get any new ones fast

>use the cannon bro
Ukraine alone already lost like 2 planes and damaged another 2 + 1 helicopter.

>>63915569 (OP)
Pic related or not?
F-16s are susceptible to FOD because of the low intake so I could definitely see FOD loses being an issue on a single engine fighter.

Its possible that he sucked up something. Birds strikes have downed jets before.
https://youtu.be/rNqU8jfAJMQ?t=42

>>63915669
No, it's a general issue in any fighter aircraft. They're all susceptible to ingesting debris, obv your chances of making it back are better in a twin engined aircraft but not by much. Going after low level drones at night, in the dark with nods on, having no depth perception, on top of fatigue, limited training, limited experience, and general human nature (target fixation etc.) makes it a pretty dangerous job in that you could easily fuck up, fuckups are also harder to recover from when flying at low alt over populated areas

>>63915697
I was thinking more sucking shit up off the runway which the F-16 is worse than most for.
As for FOD in the air I suppose you might hit a recon drone but you should be at least a couple of hundred feet up putting you above most FPVs.

>>63915718
>you should be at least a couple of hundred feet up
nope, enemy radar will pick you up and a r-37 will be fired upon you

>>63915731
I know they are flying low, if they are under 200ft they are just being stupid, structures under 250ft tall aren't marked on aviation maps unless they are on the approach / departure path.

>>63915743
>if they are under 200ft they are just being stupid
You must be new to this war, but I'm sure you know better than the pilots of both sides what the best way to stay alive is.

>>63916052

Single engine bros, our response?

>>63916075
Git gudder

>>63915582
>F-16 is an old design
Younger than the Navy's only mainline fighter clean sheet design. For reference, the Navy which just its 5th request for a new clean sheet fighter rejected to allocate all development funds to the USAF. Who dont think aircraft shelters are important. Neat.

Love this timeline

>>63916052
That pic is from before the war training using highways as runways.

>>63916055
Rotor wings are not the same as fixed wings, cable cutters are on most military choppers because they run so low.

Is the F16 the best aircraft for this roll? Seems like a prop plane could do better for cheaper, e.g. a Tucano or other coin aircraft.

>>63916119
The F-35 is the best, the F-15 is the second best, the F-16 is what they have.

>>63915682
Holy shit the warning system on tat Goshawk chimps out compared to that of a 737 or a320

>>63915629
Holy fuck that's awesome. Is this an Israeli F16?

>>63916127
yes

>>63916119
It's a "run what you brung" sort of deal. The tool you got, versus the best tool for the job.

if a drone detonates close by, there's a good chance you'll catch frag from it. especially from a geran.

it happened to a mig-29 first. then probably 1-2 other f-16s prior to this one.

>>63916134
Neat. Where did you find the footage? I just did a whole project on Israeli fighter jets hunting drones and this is the best clip of one I've ever seen

>>63916143
They should remove gun ammo from the planes, to stop pilots from trying to dogfight what's basically an oversized flak shell (with predictable results).

>>63916146
I'm not the original poster but
>Southern Golan Heights, Syria, June 20th, 2025
>drone is an Iranian Shahed-136

>>63916147
he was almost certainly using the cannon since he downed several more prior (missiles gone). cannon shells contain high explosives, so they can detonate the warhead.

>>63916153
Sweet. Thanks anon

>>63916147
>They should remove gun ammo from the planes
America tried this in Vietnam and it backfired horribly

>>63916172
Difference is, ukies don't dogfight other planes. Shooting at a big-ass grenade, with a danger zone larger than your gun's effective range, needs to be prevented.

>>63915629
see how close he was even with a missile. if that 136 went high order, there's a chance the f-16 would have been hit.

>>63916119
Anything that can fit a Hydra pod and a laser designator is the best to use the APKWS instead of expensive munitions, as demonstrated by the USN in their adventures with those rascally Houthis.

>>63915718
They're gunning shaheds and cruise missiles down, the issue isn't FPVs or recon drones numbnuts, it's pilots misjudging closure rates and/or getting tunnel vision and flying into the debris and shrapnel of shot down shaheds/cruise missiles

>>63916119
You need something fast, interceptors need to have a decisive speed advantage, especially when dealing with lots of targets. Tucano wouldn't be fast enough in many cases

>>63916172
The USN tried it, USAF demanded a cannon.

Look up the stats for NAVAIR vs ACC in Nam and come back later

>>63915661
>they won’t get new ones
New ones are training as we speak are you retard or something?

>>63916358
>Look up the stats for NAVAIR vs ACC in Nam and come back later
Missiles were not very good back then. Soviets also attempted missile-only birds, and also went back to cannons. But missile technology has come very far from when we tried pure missile fighters.

>>63915588
Debris killed a couple of V1 killers in WW2

>>63916172
Good thing technology and doctrine haven't changed since vietnam eh

>>63916055
come to think of it
russia in syria provided some of the peak heli action in a long time

>>63915569 (OP)
was he using his gun? didn't he play ace combat? everyone knows that even the wrecks have collision

Are shahed drones hard to lock onto radar? Why do they need to get so close?

>>63916612
At a guess they were down to guns, and he probably came in a bit too fast and flew into the debris.
see
>>63916403

Also, if you lose your engine in an F-16 at low altitude, you're pretty much shit out of luck. Maybe he tried to belly land instead of ejecting.

>>63915569 (OP)
Kek, 3 down 3 to go.
Is this the might of NATO air doctrine that I hear about?
It is clear that in direct combat wit Russia the US would lose hundreds of jets just in the first day since they would fight arogantly unlike hohols who hoard their few remaining precious jets.
China would easily crush the US in the air, things are becoming clear.

>>63916653
Russia lost several SU-34 a few days ago and three helicopters a day later.

>>63916346
Tucano closure rate is more than adequate if they had the resources for 12+ squadrons like the WW2 V-1 airblitz redux. Wouldn't be a /terrible/ idea to adopt less complicated interceptors either since the primary bottleneck is the limited number of fighter pilot schools and hours required to attain proficiency with 4th gen jets.

>>63916119
any jet with stabilized .50 cal gunpods firing ball hooked up to your flir, so you minimize the risk of detonation. pilots trained specifically on downing drones safely.

.50 cal is cheap and it will do the job.

>>63916657
yes where is the proof that they were 4 su 34?
they said hours before it was 1 mig 31 and 2 su 34
then the usual accounts like david the retard said it was 4 su 34s

you simply cant believe jack shit

>>63916670
To elaborate:
Two-seat high performance turboprop or light jet: ~200 flight hours (you can legally fly one with just 60-70hr)
Sensor pod + 2 AIM-9 or APKWS like >>63916224 (F-89 revival, neat)
Having a WSO minimizes the additional training required of an otherwise GA-spec pilot.
Frees up the F-16s for more challenging intercepts than a half-speed V-1.

>it went down fighting valiantly against enemy drone, pilot sacrificed his life to save civilians.
Why is the west so reluctant to accept AA kills? It's clear the F-16 ate a missile from something like a Mig-29 or Su-30 and pilot didn't have time to eject.

>>63916124
Yeah military aircraft are usually more annoying IME. Especially if its a fighter

>>63916808
>It's clear the F-16 ate a missile from something like a Mig-29 or Su-30
Its not clear though. Nobody has definitive proof either way. How do you know for sure? Ask yourself this: what's more embarrassing, getting shotdown by the enemy or sucking up garbage and then dying because you panicked and couldn't eject?

Hohol sissies... our western Wunderwaffles... But I'm sure with Steiners attack everything will come in order and soon the pride flag will be waved over the Red Square.

slav is as slav does.

>>63916848
Ukraine doesn't get to have a say in the narrative war.
West would run with story of a dumb slav pilot doing dumb slav things over accepting an F-16 got radar locked and shot down by shitty vatnik missile.

>>63915569 (OP)
They're going to have to give up on gun interceptions I think. It's just too damn risky to the airframe.

>>63917121
>over accepting an F-16 got radar locked and shot down by shitty vatnik missile
It's a 50yo plane, no one is going to be shocked the ziggers can shoot down a 50yo plane.
No one that knows anything about combat would be surprised if they shot down a 5yo plane, it would only be surprising if they consistanly shot down 5yo planes.

>>63917121
retard

>>63917121
>F-16 got radar locked and shot down by shitty vatnik missile deep inside Ukraine
Yeah that totally happened

>>63917333
See the two replies below yours.

Saving face is paramount in the western psyche. Even entertaining the thought of getting defeated by a supposedly inferior adversary is impossible.

>>63917400
Holy mother of projection, Batman!

>>63917400
>look ma i'm projecting all over the interwebs

>>63916109
Learn English. Holy shit where are you low IQ retards coming from?

>>63917410
From /pol/

>Saving face is paramount in the western psyche
The Moskva returned to port under her own power.

>>63917400
>saving face is paramount
in thirdie shitholes
>in the western psyche
i know in your culture lying and projecting onto others blatantly is considered a macho behaviour, in the west it just makes you look like a passive aggressive faggot that nobody takes seriously.

>>63917400
>Saving face
That's more of an Asiatic thing. Most Westerners have no idea how Face even works.

How will this help russia's disastrous Sumy offensiev?

>>63916612
When 200+ drones are fired at your country and you have 25-30 F-16s to augment your GBAD, and if 20,000 APWKS have been diverted from your country to Israel by Zion Don, you can’t carry enough missiles and will find yourself Winchester minus your guns no matter what load out of missiles you otherwise load. This leads to gun interceptions of explosive targets flying slower than your stall speed, which is very risky, but you are a fighter pilot in a peer to peer war, you signed up to take risks to protect your country.

>>63917526
>Most Westerners have no idea how Face even works
The compulsion to never admit one is ever wrong is cross-cultural
When's the last time you saw a woman or a liberal admit they were wrong?

>>63917638
>woman or liberal
Or Trump voters?

>>63917400
>>63917121
Insane levels of projection. What makes vatniks like this?

>what about da West

>>63917658
Them too
But at least some were willing to face facts such as Biden being a senile sockpuppet

Like I said, cross-cultural. Dem or GOP.

>>63916687
>where is the proof
Pidors. Pidors never change.

>>63916153
>Shahed-136
It's called "Geran-2".

Not a single American posts in these threads, you know.

>>63915569 (OP)
F16 has one engine. Any engine failure will result in a crash. Ingesting debris can cause engine failure

>>63917757
>it's maam!
Shahed will always be a Shahed

>>63917796
Supporting Ukraine is a bipartisan issue.

>>63917816
that's the most horrifically-worded question I've seen asked in Congress

>>63916653
They said 4 and then they said 1 and then they said 3 to go.
Where is the proof that there is only 3 to go?
Do you have video recording all 3 left F-16? No? You can't trust jack shit cumragd

>>63917816
>red is 47
Reagan is crying in his grave

>>63917843
More interesting is the safe seats are overwhelmingly pro-ukraine.

>>63917843
it was always those 10 to 15 fucking retards in the GOP who were vehemently anti-Ukraine
which the Dems seized upon to paint the whole side Russian Red

>>63917757
Gay Ran Too?

>>63917852
>>63917816
It's interesting because it indicates that the anti-ukraine propaganda machine is only being actively used in swing areas. It's targeted. The Russians have clearly decided that a granular attack on American society pays dividends. You don't need to swing 3 million people nationally, just 3000 in Assfuck, Arkansas to have a disproportionate effect for the money spent.

>>63915569 (OP)
Is there info on where he crashed?
Because here's a bit of what i experienced: around 8pm 28th of june, i've heard something flying over left bank part of kyiv. Something jet-powered(but certainly not a cruise missile), flying low, and (what i perceived as)heading east-northeast. A bit later i've seen picrel posted, and assumed obvious thing - f16 on anti-shahed mission.
And as you can see, its quite close to russian border. Is it possible he was shot down by something from that side?

>tfw no big tiddy conformal fuel tank and tech spine f16 gf
It hurts bros

So many coping nafotrannies itt

>>63918188
>So many coping nafotrannies itt

>>63917743
>you are russian if you dont believe a country that constantly lie!

meanwhile we got the sats
2 destroyed 2 damaged

now i know why they didnt share shit

>>63917757
Nope, Shahed since it is in Middle East, if this was in Europe, than, yeah, I would believe it to be a Geran.
>>63915569 (OP)
He was the only confirmed casualty in the intercepts. I am not certain who had the upper hand as I cannot find Russian UAV losses versus launches and hits, but the airman in question downed seven UAVs.

Does anyone have details? I have heard things like the UAVs were covering for missiles, which were also launched during this attack.

>>63915569 (OP)
It happens there's a selfie video of Karaya ejecting from a Mig-29 after shooting down a drone due to FOD

>>63915569 (OP)
>hurr durr, imma gun kill this plywood dorito PoS in muh viper
*succ
>*master caution noises*