Lieutenant Colonel Fischer Dmitry Vilhelmovich, a pilot for the Ukrainian Air Force, claims that the F-16’s performance is far worse than that of his Su-27. He makes this statement in a video interview taken in the summer of 2022. The Ukrainian pilot had flown the F-16, so he used his experience to compare the two jets.
I adored the aircraft I flew on my first day, the F-16. However, compared to the Su-27, it performs far worse, the pilot acknowledges. It should be emphasised that the comparison relies on one of the qualities that Russian aircraft are renowned for: mobility and proficiency in close combat. According to several observers, the Su-27 is indeed “the king of agile air combat” among Soviet and Russian fighters.
An expert was consulted by BulgarianMilitary.com, who clarified that it was unnecessary to compare the pilot. The MiG-29, the expert claims, should be used as a benchmark for comparing the F-16 to Soviet or Russian aircraft. In contrast to the F-15, the Su-27 is far superior.
Lt. Col. Fischer Dmitry Vilhelmovich
Users of the website Lost Armor claim that there are allegations of the death of this Ukrainian Air Force officer. Additionally, Lt. Col. Fischer and Dmitry Vilhelmovich’s demise was reported on Ukrainian social media sites.
It is anticipated that Lieutenant Colonel Vilhelmovich passed away at the start of June 2022. Russian and Ukrainian sources both assert that the Ukrainian pilot passed away on June 5, 2022, close to the village of Orekhovo in the Zaporizhzhia area. They said he was flying a Su-27P1M with the boarding number 38. It’s unclear with certainty if the pilot passed away while engaged in air combat or was shot down by an adversary’s air defence system.
For Ukraine, an F-16
Following initial requests from the Netherlands and Poland to provide this fighter to the Ukrainian Air Force, the F-16 started to garner appeal among the general people. Some even claim that this dispute will be resolved during a conference with Ukraine’s allies at the German base of Ramstein this month.
As the country that produced the aircraft, the US has the final decision, regardless of the preferences of the donors, and will have to approve the re-export of the aircraft. The Pentagon and official Washington both dismiss this notion at the time or give ambiguous answers.
Even if it is permitted, the arrival of the F-16 won’t grant superiority, despite what many Eastern and Western pundits claim, according to Ukrainian pilots in the air. They claim that doing so would be suicide for both the West and Ukraine. Compared to the Soviet and Russian systems that Ukrainian pilots are familiar with, the F-16 is a vastly different system. A Ukrainian pilot’s training on the F-16 will require at least six months, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. Even so, this is the smallest time frame.
additional deadly weapons
Although the idea of F-16s in Ukraine is not new, it has gained favour since the beginning of the year after Western armies that supply Ukraine with armaments decided to deploy tanks, which are much more lethal, instead. Leopard 2, Challenger 2, and American Abrams tanks have already been confirmed for delivery.
