For a long time it has been in the news that Ukraine is preparing to receive 12 to 18 US F-16 fighter jets. In fact, it has been reported that, the Western Allies will probably not transfer fighter aircraft one by one, but will send a whole squadron at once.
But it seems that, the real role of the US is much broader, because apart from the export deal, there is also the issue of providing weapons and spare parts to these fighters.
There is an extensive campaign, regarding the supply of fighter aircraft to Ukraine. In the meantime, there is a constant 'back and forth' between types of equipment. F-16s, Mirage, Rafale and Grippen have already been mentioned, and there may be more to come.
Recently and after years of postponements, Congress finally approved the US Air Force's plan to retire the A-10 Thunderbolt, specifically the leaked information from Congress approved the decommissioning!
According to experts, this is a good move, as the A-10 is no longer suitable for America's geostrategic needs.
What is drawing attention is that, the A-10Cs in quantity of 40 pieces will be transferred to an airbase in Germany for storage.
But six months ago, the same Congress extended the A-10C attack aircraft until 2025.
The fact is that, after the life extension, these 40 fighter jets that the United States removed from service were undergoing maintenance to extend their service life. How often does a state such as the United States, before removing aircraft from service, carry out maintenance to renew them?!
Now let's look at the procedures that have recently occurred in Ukraine:
∙ Patriot and Hawk air defense system was developed
∙ Deployed western medium altitude air defense systems
It seems that Ukraine is trying to build a multi-layered air defence, judging by the positions, to isolate the theatre of military operations from the air. If this is so, then it is very likely that under the cover of air defense systems, the A-10C aircraft would be very welcome! In this concept, counterattacks are more beneficial than F-16s, which don't quite fit this concept.
That is, it is quite possible to assume that the whole campaign with the procurement of F-16s, Grippen, Mirage is nothing but an information barrier, hiding the procurement of completely different equipment.
We have already seen many cases of FPV drones with primitive or elaborate explosive devices, used for attacks on military equipment used in Ukraine.
However, this is the first time we have seen one of the new Russian inventions destroyed in combat by a drone, a BTR-80 equipped with two UB-32 pods with unguided S-8 aircraft missiles, plus an armor cage on top for protection against throwing grenades or vertical drone attacks.
The FPV drone was originally flying towards a military motorcycle. But the pilot managed to identify the target seconds before contact, and avoid wasting the explosive charge on a less important target, and then directed it at the hybrid missile system.
In general, an FPV drone is a relatively inexpensive weapon against enemy combat vehicles, whose effectiveness depends directly on the skill of the pilot-operator. That said, training for camera drone operators is anything but easy.
Earlier, Defense Express learned from the Kruk UAV pilot training center that while the usual quadcopter control courses are successfully completed by 90-95% of students, on the other hand, only 60-70% of the group manages to pass the training on FPV drones. The basic Mavic learning course is five days, while an FPV drone operator is trained for at least two weeks.
