An unnamed heroic Ukrainian F-16 pilot risked his life and his airframe to save an untold number of innocent civilians on Dec. 13 during an unprecedented aerial assault with Kinzhal ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles, overflying fuel warnings and forced to use the jet’s gun to shoot down the last two targets.
He is a genuine hero—he did his best with the tools he was given. An F-16 with a complement of 2xAIM-120s, 2xAIM-9s, and 511 rounds of 20mm in the internal six-barreled M60 Vulcan Gatling gun-type cannon.
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This load of missiles is typical of an air-to-ground mission. An F‑16 flying a strike (interdiction) mission, a close air support (CAS) mission for assisting ground forces, or even for a reconnaissance mission would carry the two AMRAAM (active radar seeker) plus two Sidewinder (IR seeker) missile loadout.
This loadout takes nothing away from the air-to-ground capability to carry this 2x2 load because the aircraft cannot carry anything other than air-to-air missiles on the outermost stations (stations 1,2, 8 and 9).
F-16 Flight Manual diagram depicting stores options for the aircraft.
On a surface attack mission this 2x2 load (plus “air-to-mud” weapons) provides self-protection capability en route to the target as well as the ability to swing to an exclusively air-to-air role after delivering the air-to-ground ordnance.
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The next inner stations (stations 3 and 7) have the option of flying with either missiles or bombs of any type.
On any air-to-air mission it is undeniably restrictive to not use these stations to carry more missiles.
There is no rational reason to limit the ability to shoot down two more cruise missiles, or fighters, or whatever airborne hostile aircraft or weapons are on the way to attack military or civilian targets. Even if these are in limited supply, they should not be kept in reserve. And the pilot will return with all the missiles not needed on that sortie to be used on the next flight.
There can be no reason for maintenance reasons. An AIM-9 weighs less than 100 kilograms and is often loaded by hand by two ground personnel, even while hot pit refueling (gassing up without shutting the engine down) between flights. The AIM-120 which weighs 160 kilograms can be reloaded just as quickly using one device. And even if there is an emergency scramble, with no reload time, the airplane already has two more missiles than it would have had.
Also, the effect on range and endurance is negligible for the additional missiles, so it provides no advantage going with a 2x2 load instead of the standard 4x2 or even 5x1 complement.
In this situation, while low on fuel, our hero had to fly within 4,000 feet (about 1 km) of the target, risking flying through the debris of the target, rather than shooting from beyond visual range with an AIM-120, or from perhaps 10 km (depending on the targets IR signature) with an AIM-9.
So, I must ask, “Who decided to launch an air defense fighter with less than an optimal load of missiles and endanger whoever might be on the receiving end of a cruise missile?”
I know of no experienced fighter pilot who would not be asking, “Why is an F-16 flying a combat mission with two empty stations?”
The views expressed in this opinion article are the author’s and not necessarily those of Kyiv Post.
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