““Shooting down cruise missiles with a cannon is very risky due to the high speed of the target and the danger of detonation””, — write: www.radiosvoboda.org
According to Ignat, we are talking about a large-scale shelling on December 13, when the forces of the Russian Federation launched almost 200 drones, “Daggers” and more than 90 different missiles over Ukraine. During such attacks, the main target of the F-16 is cruise missiles.
As Ignat said, “the F-16 pilot first used all four air-to-air missiles.” In this way, he shot down four Russian cruise missiles. However, the pilot spotted another target and decided to use the aircraft gun.”
“Shooting down cruise missiles with a cannon is very risky because of the high speed of the target and the danger of detonation. But I did as the instructors in the US taught and I managed to hit. As it turned out, two rockets flying next to each other were destroyed at the same time,” the pilot himself told Ignat.
The Air Force noted that “this case is unique: for the first time in history, an F-16 pilot destroyed six cruise missiles in one sortie, two of them with the help of an aircraft gun.”
At the same time, Ignat noted that “despite the fact that not the most modern modifications of the F-16 were transferred to Ukraine, Ukrainian pilots demonstrate exceptional skills every day, making maximum use of the available equipment.”
On the morning of December 13, Russian troops launched a massive Russian missile attack on Ukraine. At night, according to the Air Force of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Russia attacked Ukraine with drones.
The authorities of the Ivano-Frankivsk region reported on a Russian attack on critical infrastructure facilities, there is a hit. Also, in the neighboring Ternopil region, without details, they announced the “negative consequences” of the Russian attack. In the Lviv region, Russian troops attacked energy facilities, there were no casualties, OVA head Maksym Kozytskyi reported in a telegram.
The company “Ukrenergo” reported that due to the attack on energy facilities, the volume of electricity consumption restrictions has been increased for today.
According to the Ministry of Energy, since October 2022, Russia has carried out more than a thousand strikes on Ukrainian energy infrastructure facilities, this year alone 9 GW of generating capacity was lost due to strikes.