““I didn’t believe it at first.” How a Ukrainian pilot set a historical record – expertly shot down six missiles in one sortie – details from Romanenko January 8, 21:28 Share: F-16 (Photo: REUTERS/Jana Rodenbusch) Ukrainian F-16 pilot during a massive attack by the Russian Federation in December 2024 2018, for the first time in the history of the use of such a fighter, it destroyed six enemy cruise missiles in one combat sortie, said the head of the communications department of the Command Air Force”, — write on: ua.news
F-16 (Photo: REUTERS/Jana Rodenbusch)
During a massive attack by the Russian Federation in December 2024, a Ukrainian F-16 pilot destroyed six enemy cruise missiles in one sortie for the first time in the history of the use of such a fighter, said Yuriy Ignat, head of the communications department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Aviation expert, leading researcher of the State Aviation Museum Valery Romanenko told how he managed it on the air of Radio NV.
To be honest, I didn’t really believe it at first. And called Mr. Ignat back. He confirmed. He says that he talked to the pilot, and the pilot himself did not expect such a result.
Indeed, the pilot skillfully used all the capabilities of the aircraft. But I want to add that the navigation navigators effectively and optimally aimed it at five missiles. Guidance was carried out five times.
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How was the process, according to the story? Initially, two medium-range AMRAAM missiles were used. It was aimed at a group of missiles. Somewhere there was a group launch and two missiles were shot down by medium-range missiles.
Then the guidance navigator aimed at another group of missiles. And the pilot used short-range missiles – Sidewinder. Moreover, Sidewinders of old models, which are generally optimal for destroying such non-maneuverable targets as Russian cruise missiles.
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And only in the last case was he informed (in the same place, the tactical information exchange system) about the appearance of more cruise missiles in its area of operation. And the pilot [знаючи]that he no longer had missiles on board, decided to use a cannon.
And approached competently – not behind, as if chasing a rocket. If he had fired clearly behind or at a small angle, the warhead could have exploded in the event of a hit, and what once happened to our MiG-29 happened — the debris hit the plane itself. The pilot competently approached at a serious, acute angle, fired so that the debris in the event of an explosion would not damage his own plane. He gave several rounds and it turned out that two rockets were traveling quite close to each other – apparently they were launched from the same plane. And the plane’s radar picked up both missiles and when the pilot pulled the trigger, it fired multiple bursts to engage both missiles.
[Сталося] even so that the pilot did not see that he hit two. After landing, he was told that he had shot down not one, but two missiles.
In general, it was a successful sortie, which simply confirmed the skill of the pilot himself, and the good teamwork of the air defense system in general.
