According to the expert, Ukraine needs a means to protect against hypersonic missiles. However, Western F-16 fighters will not help in this.
Former US Air Force colonel and defense expert Jeff Fischer said the use of the Kh-47M2 Kinzhal hypersonic missile is an escalation move by Russia. Newsweek writes about it.
According to him, this changes the course of the war, since Ukraine cannot shoot down such missiles. Moreover, this is a challenge for the United States of America.
The publication writes that the escalation by the Russian Federation is taking place against the backdrop of how Ukraine is actively asking the United States for F-16 aircraft. Fisher believes it is too early to say whether Moscow’s use of the Kinzhals motivates Kyiv to allow delivery of Western fighter jets.
“Approval and deployment to Ukraine of 4th generation fighters such as the F-16 should not be seen as an ability to neutralize the threat posed by the Kh-47. Rather, the F-16 or other fighters will provide Ukraine with the ability to combat and ensure air superiority over their sovereign territory,” Fischer said.
However, according to Air Force Colonel Maximilian Bremer, Russia’s war against Ukraine showed that the so-called “air supremacy” can be won not with aircraft, but with the help of mobile air defense systems.
“Any attempt by Ukraine to gain air superiority would be a costly mistake that it cannot afford given Russia’s still significant numerical advantage,” he said.
Recall that on the night of March 9, the RF Armed Forces launched dozens of missiles on the territory of Ukraine. Explosions were heard in the Kyiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Khmelnitsky, Lvov, Ternopil, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk, Odessa, Ternopil and Kirovograd regions. In some areas, the alarm lasts more than five hours.
As later reported in the Kyiv city military administration, the alarm in the capital lasted almost 7 hours. Loitering ammunition, Shahed kamikaze drones, several types of cruise missiles, including the Kinzhal, which hit an infrastructure facility, were fired at the capital.
