The smart way Ukraine is keeping its F-16s safe from Russia could be key to airpower survival in modern war

• Ukraine has a new way to continue an important strategy to keep the Air Force alive.

• It has new complexes to keep the F-16s away from fixed soles.

• The West is increasingly embracing more and more disintegration, and Ukraine showed how important it is.

It is an increasing priority for the West due to the risk of fighting peer levels against an enemy such as Russia or China, and the risk of early destruction of a conflict against an enemy such as Russia or China.

For Ukraine, disintegration and mobility while maintaining agility were critical for the country’s surviving air force. Russian attack.

Ukraine uses two new trucks to support the US-made F-16 fighter plane with task planning, maintenance and ammunition. These systems developed and provided by the group come to life with the support of Ukraine’s military and energy sector, typically replaces the functions limited to fixed bases.

In one of the new complexes, there is a field of command pole and workstations for the pilots for the pilots, as well as a space for the personnel to listen to personnel, and the other comes with a workshop to test and prepare weapons and trucks to put ammunition on aircraft.

Very important because “Ukraine Airports are one of the enemy’s priority goalsSo it is getting harder to keep the plane safe, dedi he said.

Tim Robinson, the military aviation expert of the UK Royal Aviation Association, described it as a very innovative step that could be “critical” to help. A few F-16 of Ukraine survive.

“In fact, you need to keep the F-16s in motion, change these vehicles, and allow Russia to work under these conditions that they are looking for.” He said. In such steps, Ukraine’s “NATO has reached where it wants to be too much,” he added.

Disintegration of Ukraine

The scattered and segregation of the aircraft stopped the deletion of Ukraine’s air force much smaller than Russia. A US General He said that Ukraine has lost relatively less of its plane in the first 18 months Because “they will rarely get up and go down to the same airport.”

Russia, on the other hand, did not try to distribute the plane carefully. Ukraine began to hit their bases with long -range dronesput the war on Russian territory. And although Russia now moves to keep their planes safe, Ukraine continues to hit Russian planes because of the tendency to cluster them.

Ukraine was more successful than the Russians hit Ukraine in targeting Russian air bases.

As in the Middle East conflicts in the last few decades, many Western countries are connected to permanent bases and fixed facilities to support the fleets of aircraft working well in the conflict scenarios in which peace in the time of peace or opposing power deprived them to reach them. However, countries with the capacity to eliminate much more advanced ammunition and enemy air force on the ground make alternatives to have alternatives.

A sense of urgency in the West

The West is turning to disintegration, separation and fighting from simple places because of its concerns about both Russia and China. The Chinese army has a growing access, making us more vulnerable to the bases in the Pacific, and Russia increases the war and missile output.

Among their efforts to increase air defenses, others aim to ensure that the basic allied air force is not a seating duck.

This is for example, a driving force behind what the US Air Force says. Cevik War Employment Strategy involving working from scattered places and keeping air power agile and flexible. He’s thinking about this application As China’s army expands, critical in the Pacific .

The US and the allies want to rely less on traditional tracks because it is more difficult to target every piece of concrete in a country than to prosecute air bases.

Like some warplanes Sweden’s fluIt was built for rugged operations and like a plane MQ-9 Reaper Drones And A-10 Warthogs He took it out and landed on the air tracks. Other jets such as F-16s and newer F-35s carried out highway landings Next to other planes and big C-130 transport planes landed on beaches or even.

Urgent increased as soldiers Watch Russia’s war closely to see how it fought And to see what kind of changes they may need to make.

Robinsons said that many Western soldiers have already been looking at the disintegration, but “Ukraine was watching it quickly and putting it back into the minds of people.”

For example, a French lieutenant colonel, in question The 2023 distribution exercise, including the British, American and French Air Force, was “new way to do so” to face the peer threats we are currently experiencing.

The United States noted the change. General Kevin Schneider, US Pacific Air Force Commander, in question In March, “Safe, Fixed Bases to operate from fixed soles ended”, the threats in the Indo-Pacific region “under controversial conditions, more than one, flexible, flexible power that can work from scattered position,” he said.

Jarmo Lindberg, a former Finnish fighter pilot who served as the Commander of the Finnish Defense forces, told Business Insider to adopt more distribution tactics.

Finland, who limits Russia and designed its army with the Russian threat, has adopted the idea of disintegration for decades, including road bases and jets that can use civil airports, not only military airports, but also civil airports.

However, major changes are difficult, extremely expensive and can make air operations less efficient.

“It is a cultural thing in which most Western Air Force is used to operate from central bases,” he said, an old Western Air Force intelligence officer, who spoke to BI on condition that he is not authorized to talk about what he has learned in the role.

However, he said that there should be a change far from full centralization, because “it is not really an option to cover it all to be shot.”

A different type of war

Ukraine’s struggle against Russia is not how a perrane level of the West will look for a conflict. The West has much larger air force and more advanced jets than Ukraine. By the way, Kyiv has Soviet jets and only a handful used F-16s and mirage.

Nevertheless, there are still important lessons in this war.

Warnings that the West may not be ready for a great war with a close enemy, now great defense expenditures and the air war in front of the mind. While watching Ukraine, for example, a great Lack of ground -based air defenses in the West. These are vital systems to protect the soles and other goals.

Bridal Restructural Director Taras Chmut stressed how different this war was for Ukraine compared to how Jets was used by Western partners.

“The planes taken by Ukraine appeared in a closed ecosystem and existed,” he said. He said: “They were not used in our way to use them. Ours are working under a full-scale war conditions-Sorti sorti and constantly Russian hunt for the plane.”

He claimed that the West would not have to copy this definitive solution. “There is no time to fully deploy the infrastructure for the F-16 for Ukraine, the most rational solution is to invest in a mobile ecosystem.”

Developments in Ukraine stem from an emergency necessity, but the West pays attention.

“F-16 style, permanent base operations in influenza-like operations, transforming permanent base operations, something I think will look with interest with interest.” He said.

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