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A Ukrainian F-16 pilot may have pulled off a feat no one flying the jet has achieved before.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Ukraine’s Air Force Command said the pilots took out six Russian cruise missiles in a single flight.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n
Colonel Yuriy Ihnat said it was the first time this had been recorded in the jet’s history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Ukraine said one of its F-16 pilots achieved a feat nobody flying the jet has managed before.<\/p>\n
In a Facebook post<\/a> on Tuesday, Ukraine’s Air Force Command said a pilot flying an F-16 took out six Russian cruise missiles during a single flight, using air-to-air missiles and an aircraft cannon.<\/p>\n This occurred during a “mass” missile and drone attack in December, it said.<\/p>\n On December 13, Russia fired almost 200 drones, Kinzhal air-launched ballistic missiles, and 94 cruise missiles at Ukraine.<\/p>\n The pilot’s main target was the cruise missiles, according to the post.<\/p>\n He used all four air-to-air missiles on board the F-16, two of which were short-range, forcing the jet to fly closer to the missiles \u2014 an “extremely dangerous” task, it said.<\/p>\n The pilot then struck two other missiles flying close to each other using an air cannon.<\/p>\n Business Insider was not able to verify the report.<\/p>\n Intercepting “such important targets is not an easy task for a pilot, but who, if not Ukrainian pilots, has the most experience in the world of winged missiles?” Colonel Yuriy Ihnat, head of the Ukrainian Air Force Command’s public relations service, said.<\/p>\n Since the start of its full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has frequently launched large missile attacks<\/a> on Ukraine, aimed at overwhelming Ukraine’s air defense systems and hitting targets behind the front lines.<\/p>\n The pilot, who had recently undergone retraining for F-16s in the US, said in the post that Ukrainian F-16 pilots had never used an aviation cannon to shoot down targets.<\/p>\n However, he said he applied the lessons he learned in the US.<\/p>\n “I must have set a record that day,” he said, adding, “I am convinced that this experience will be useful to colleagues.”<\/p>\n Colonel Ihnat described it as the first-ever documented case.<\/p>\n He said that “based on objective control, we have one hundred percent confirmation that for the first time in history in anti-air combat, an American fighter F-16 shoots down six winged missiles.”<\/p>\n Read the original article on Business Insider<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n