Preface:

The newly purchased aircraft from India got hit and made headlines globally. In fact, the newly bought aircraft of Ukraine were also hit at the first time; it's just that people's attention to it was not as high as that of India. Ukraine hopes to reverse the air combat situation by relying on several F-16 fighters. However, if India cannot achieve this, Ukraine clearly cannot either. In August 2024, the first batch of US-made F-16 fighter jets received by Ukraine crashed in actual combat, and pilot Alexei Mes (or translated as Oleksii Mes) was killed. After investigation, it was confirmed that this plane was shot down by a US Patriot missile, not an attack from Russian missiles. During the ceasefire negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey, another new F-16 fighter jet purchased by Ukraine was hit, and the missile was still the US Patriot.

1

The US deliberately held back a hand, and the Ukrainian Patriot missiles could not identify the F-16 fighter jets. The F-16 and "Patriot" missiles both belong to US-made equipment and should theoretically achieve coordinated operations through **Link-16 tactical data link**. However, to avoid leaking core secrets, when the US sold Patriot missiles and F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine, it deliberately held back one thing - that is, the enemy identification function of Link-16 was not activated. The US feared that Ukraine would leak the core secrets to the world, and even did not install the enemy identification system of Link-16 on the terminal of the Patriot anti-aircraft missile. This has led to frequent incidents where Ukrainian Patriots shoot down Ukrainian F-16s.

According to the British Sky News report, in the early morning of May 16th, around 03:30, to cope with the drone air raids from the Russian army, the Ukrainian Air Force urgently dispatched an F16 fighter for response. But surprisingly, after this F16 fighter took off, it suddenly crashed, suspected of being hit by a missile. After investigation by Ukraine, it was confirmed that this F-16 that was shot down was not hit by a Russian missile, but by a Ukrainian Patriot missile. This is the second F-16 fighter jet shot down by its own missiles in Ukraine. It can be said that this fighter jet, which was highly anticipated, has not played any role before being shot down multiple times.

2

The mismatch in the system, the dilemma of NATO standards adapting to the battlefield in Ukraine, NATO weapons are obviously not suitable for the battlefield in Ukraine. The advanced nature of US-made weapons is highly dependent on the NATO integrated combat system. Without the support of the system, the performance of the corresponding weapon equipment will immediately decrease significantly. Ukraine's air defense system is similar to India's, and belongs to the typical "worldwide brands", and its system is even more chaotic and complex. Ukraine's air defense weapons mainly come from US-made Patriots, German, British, French, Danish, and other European countries' air defense weapons, as well as S-300s from the former Soviet Union era, making it very complicated. Even with partial support provided by the US, it still cannot build up the corresponding system.

Ukraine hopes to get Patriots and also gets F-16s, but this piecemeal weapons deployment model is a typical "treating the head for the headache" aid model, ultimately leading to the absurd result of "US weapons attacking US weapons". MP Bezughraia pointed out that about half of the aircraft losses of the Ukrainian military are due to friendly fire, and the air defense forces are severely corrupt. Not only the Patriot missiles, F-16 fighters, and Western Hamas rocket launchers, etc., have not played their应有的威力 after entering Ukraine, showing obvious incompatibility. In fact, the core problem of Ukraine is that it does not have a system to support Western equipment, which ultimately leads to failure.

The US did not provide the Ukrainian military with a complete combat network, resulting in its inability to maximize the effectiveness of its weapons. Simply outputting weapons without a collaborative network is no different from "giving a knife without teaching how to use it". The misfire events involving F-16 and "Patriot" are not just isolated cases of technical malfunctions or command errors, but rather a microcosm of the disconnection between NATO arms aid models and practical combat needs. Such lessons are not only effective for India and Ukraine, but also for other countries reliant on imported weapons.

3

It is not uncommon for US missiles to hit US planes, and experts直言 US missiles love to blow up US planes. A US Super Hornet fighter jet was shot down by its own missile. The incident of NATO aircraft being shot down by US missiles also happens from time to time. It can be said that even within NATO, they have not been able to solve the problem of their own missiles hitting their own aircraft, which has been a long-standing problem for the US and NATO. Modern weapons that heavily rely on information systems pose risks far exceeding expectations once they are detached from the collaborative network. If the US itself cannot coordinate properly, let alone Ukraine.

Original source: https://www.toutiao.com/article/7505186042954154547/

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