Russian-Made Weapons Can't Compete with American Products? It's Because You Don't Know How to Use Them. Three Loud Explosions from the Russian Army Shot Down an F-16 Fighter Jet.

Russian-Made Weapons Can't Beat American Ones?

Can Russian-made weapons not beat American ones? In the Middle Eastern battlefields, Arab and Iranian armies have not shot down any US-made aircraft in air combat over several decades.

Even using anti-aircraft missiles, from 2013 when the Israeli Air Force conducted hundreds of airstrikes on the Assad regime's forces in Syria, until October 2023 when a new Middle East war broke out, the Israeli Air Force conducted thousands of airstrikes on Gaza, Lebanon, Syria, Iran, and Yemen.

In more than ten years of time, in thousands of battles, Syrian and Iranian air defense units launched over 1,000 anti-aircraft missiles. Only once, on January 10, 2018, did a Syrian anti-aircraft missile shoot down an Israeli F-16 fighter jet.

An F-16 fighter jet faced with S-300 anti-aircraft missiles, Buk, Tor, Sam, Bavar 373, Azarakhsh, and aD-08 Kuhnoon anti-aircraft missiles from Iran, Syria, and Yemen Houthi forces in the Middle East has only lost one aircraft, almost maintaining an undefeated record.

Now, Russia is showing the world how to shoot down an American F-16 fighter jet. The first step must be to solve the problem of detecting and locking on in advance.

At around 11:20 AM, Russian MiG-31 fighters cruising near Kursk and Sumy Oblasts began turning on their radar systems for aerial search. The MiG-31 fighter, besides being a large interceptor and a platform for launching the Kinzhal hypersonic missile, due to its massive radar power, can also act as a small early warning aircraft.

The Zaslon S-800 radar of the MiG-31 fighter can detect fighter-sized radar targets at a distance of up to 200 kilometers and track up to 10 of them simultaneously.

With three MiG-31BM fighters conducting a sector patrol, they can form an almost seamless detection system. The mission of these MiG-31 fighters that day was targeted. Recently, there have been intense clashes along the border of Sumy Oblast between Ukrainian and Russian forces. Ukrainian fighters continuously launched strikes, firing US-made JADM satellite-guided bombs to attack Russian ground positions.

Russian forces targeted the time periods of Ukrainian strikes, deploying MiG-31 fighters for aerial patrols in key areas. This time, the Russians really caught their chance.

A Ukrainian MiG-29 fighter appeared first, starting to launch US-made SBD small-diameter precision-guided bombs at Russian positions. The Russians quickly discovered that there was also an F-16A fighter of Ukraine executing air cover nearby.

Because this F-16A fighter was operating at low altitudes to avoid detection by Russian air defense radars, the 96L6 low-altitude detection radar of the Russian S-400 air defense missile system had difficulty detecting this F-16A fighter.

Unless a high tower is set up locally to increase the radar detection range, this F-16 fighter could have completed its mission and returned home victoriously in the Middle East. However, this time, the F-16A fighter encountered the elite forces of the Russian Aerospace Forces.

Three Explosions Knock Down the F-16 Fighter

The Russian MiG-31 fighter did not directly launch an attack. First, it was too far away to have absolute confidence in shooting down the Ukrainian aircraft by launching the R-37 long-range air-to-air missile.

Secondly, getting closer to lock onto the target would require turning on the fire control radar, which might be detected. Or flying closer to attack would risk the MiG-31 entering the interception area of Ukrainian air defense missiles, leaving it vulnerable to counterattack by Patriot air defense missiles.

The Russian MiG-31 fighter used a data link system to directly transmit target information to the networked Russian S-400 air defense missile battery. This way, the Russian fighter was responsible for detecting, locking onto, and transmitting data. The Russian air defense missile position did not need to turn on its radar to lock onto the target and launch a surprise attack.

Three Russian air defense missiles were heading towards the Ukrainian F-16 fighter. The Russian Aerospace Forces' MiG-31 fighter started activating to provide mid-course guidance or terminal guidance for the Russian air defense missiles. Ultimately, the air defense missiles opened their active radars in the final stage for the last search, positioning, and attack explosion.

Throughout the process, the Ukrainian F-16A fighter may have been completely unaware. When the radar warning alarm blared in the cockpit, three 48N6DM missiles fired by Russian S-400 air defense missiles were already closing in.

The 48N6DM missile can intercept targets traveling at speeds of up to 14 times the speed of sound. For an F-16A fighter flying at only slightly more than the speed of sound, by the time the radar warning alarm sounded, the Ukrainian pilot had no reaction time left.

Russian pilot Voyevoda reported that three air defense missiles were fired at the Ukrainian fighter. The Ukrainian side announced that the F-16A fighter pilot, 26-year-old Pavlo Ivanov, was killed, and he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine by Zelenskyy.

Pavlo Ivanov, after graduating from flight school, flew Sukhoi Su-25 attack aircraft for a period of time. After the summer of 2023, he spent over a year in Europe intensively studying the three-year operational course for F-16 fighters. However, he ultimately fell victim to Russia's systematic strike capabilities.

This battle again demonstrated the power of systematic operations. Russian-made weapons are not good at fighting alone but excel in integrating into a large system where they complement each other and conduct overall operations.

Even the much-criticized MiG-29 fighter, with its small and outdated radar system and limited range, works well within the Soviet operational system. There are powerful radar stations all over the ground.

The MiG-29 fighter does not even need to turn on its radar; guided by ground controllers, it simply flies straight to the launch position, opens its fire control radar, and fires missiles. In this approach, the MiG-29 fighter is like a stealth aircraft, very simple and brutal.

Short range is not a problem either; the European front is not large, anyway, just covering the Russian ground armor clusters, which is only a few dozen kilometers.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7492613492604666379/

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