3 ms·

Soviet AA isn't even the biggest threat - As many Ukrainian pilots put it, the main threat is the R-37M. You can at least fly low and out of the way to defend a

Soviet AA isn't even the biggest threat - As many Ukrainian pilots put it, the main threat is the R-37M. You can at least fly low and out of the way to defend against SAMs, but without a missile like the Meteor there is no answer to the combination of long range SAMs and R-37M carrying fighters. Basically the problem is that to avoid AA you have to fly low or far from the front lines. If you fly low, you can't give enough energy to your missile to threaten even just Russian bombers. If you fly high but far away, there is no way to deal with Russian planes carrying R-37s that will be able to fire their missiles far before you. The only way to even the playing field would be to give Ukraine modern Gripens with the Meteor missile, as the F-16 cannot fire the Meteor.

fullspectrumdev 3y ago
> as the F-16 cannot fire the Meteor. To be fair, the MiG’s Ukraine does have were not supposed to be capable of firing storm shadows either. But that problem got resolved, and they are now firing them well outside the expected operational envelope and scoring solid hits.
- sudosysgen 3y ago
  Not really. The Storm Shadows are programmed externally, the plane just gives the signal to fire. For the Meteor you would need deep integration into the fire control system, and even into the data links to be able to use it's range as the F-16 radar is not powerful enough. If it was easy to do, MBDA would have done it and made a lot of money that way.