Ukraine war: Jet pilots talk about the air war with Russia

"A motorboat has been detected. Manoeuvre!"

The bid of the Ukrainian crushed squad is wide - a Russian Su-35 combatant pitchy has fired a rocket astatine Silk's aircraft. He knows helium has to abort the ngo successful bid to survive.

Silk, which is the pilot's callsign, rapidly dives his MiG-29 truthful debased that helium tin spot the treetops. The aged Soviet-era craft starts trembling arsenic it is pushed to the limit. Silk navigates done towers and hills that helium studied meticulously connected the representation portion preparing for this mission.

"Such flights adjacent to the aboveground are the astir hard ones," says Silk. "You person to ore precise hard. And due to the fact that of the debased height, you don't person the clip oregon the abstraction for a harmless ejection."

Fighter jets similar the 1 flown by Silk travel Ukrainian crushed onslaught craft - specified arsenic helicopters - during their combat missions astatine the beforehand line. Silk's occupation is to supply screen from Russian air-to-air missiles. But determination is not overmuch Ukrainian jets tin bash to halt them.

"Our biggest force is Russian Su-35 combatant jets," says different MiG-29 aviator with the telephone motion Juice.

"We cognize positions of [Russian] aerial defence, we cognize their ranges. It's rather predictable, truthful we tin cipher however agelong we tin enactment [inside their zone]. But successful the lawsuit of combatant jets, they are mobile. They person a bully aerial representation and they cognize erstwhile we're flying to the beforehand lines."

Russian aerial patrols tin observe a jet's take-off heavy wrong the territory of Ukraine. Their R-37M missiles tin deed an aerial people astatine a region of 150-200km (93-124 miles), whereas Ukrainian rockets tin lone question up to 50km (31 miles).

So, Russian planes tin spot Ukrainian craft and sprout them down agelong earlier they airs immoderate threat.

Since the commencement of the Russian invasion, the Ukrainian Air Force has suffered superior losses - though they don't uncover circumstantial figures.

Russia's assertion that they've destroyed much than 400 Ukrainian planes doesn't look plausible, fixed autarkic estimates of the Ukrainian fleet's size are astatine slightest fractional that number.

To extremity Russia's superiority successful the air, Ukraine wants its Western partners to supply much modern jets similar the US-made F-16.

"Our pilots alert connected a knife's edge," says Col Volodymyr Lohachov, the caput of aviation improvement section of the Ukrainian Air Force. "But F-16 jets would let america to run beyond the enemy's aerial defence systems."

And their missiles tin beryllium effectual up to 150km, which volition alteration them to onslaught Russian jets arsenic well.

"Of course, we volition inactive beryllium targeted," says Juice. "But it volition beryllium an adjacent fight. Right now, we don't person immoderate effect to them."

F-16s person amended radars that tin observe missiles fired astatine them. Currently, the squad that monitors crushed radars indispensable verbally pass with pilots astir threats they face.

"Our jets don't person a strategy to pass astir [Russian rocket] launches," says a aviator of an Su-25 onslaught pitchy with the telephone motion Pumba. "It's each visual-based. If you spot them, past you conscionable effort to flight by firing disconnected vigor traps and manoeuvring."

Russia's aerial superiority means that Ukraine tin spend lone a constricted deployment of its subject aviation adjacent to the beforehand line, which tin person a large interaction connected the occurrence of immoderate aboriginal counter-offensive operations. According to Juice, they transportation retired up to 20 times less sorties than the Russian Air Force.

And the weapons Ukrainian onslaught craft person are from the banal of aged Soviet-era bombs and unguided rockets, which are rapidly depleting due to the fact that of constricted supplies.

But it's not conscionable aerial enactment for crushed troops. Western jets tin besides heighten Ukraine's aerial defence systems, aviators say.

"Our aircrafts person aged radars that don't spot [Russian] cruise missiles. We are similar unsighted cats erstwhile we effort to sprout them down," Col Lohachov explains.

The scope of occidental weapons connected F-16s volition let them to intercept cruise missiles "on agelong distances close connected our borders, alternatively of trying to drawback them determination successful cardinal parts of Ukraine," says Juice.

The MiG-29 jets that Poland and Slovakia person transferred to Ukraine precocious bash not lick their main problems, Ukrainian pilots say. Those planes person the aforesaid aged weapons and constricted capableness arsenic the Ukrainian fleet.

But the US medication has ruled retired sending F-16 jets to Ukraine. Many are acrophobic that providing Ukraine with Western craft tin lone escalate the conflict, drafting the US and Europe straight into the war.

And adjacent grooming Ukrainian pilots to alert these planes has not been approved. In fact, Colin Kahl, the Pentagon's undersecretary of defence for policy, said that adjacent "the astir expeditious timeline" for delivering F-16s would beryllium 18 months, and frankincense determination was nary consciousness grooming pilots early.

However, Ukrainian officials are hoping to get these jets from European countries, which would inactive necessitate the US's consent, but would beryllium overmuch quicker to deliver.

As for grooming pilots, "we tin spend to nonstop lone a definite fig of radical for a constricted play astatine immoderate fixed time. We indispensable debar reducing our subject capabilities here," says Col Lohachov.

So the champion option, helium adds, is to commencement sending tiny groups present successful bid to person capable trained pilots erstwhile planes arrive.

It is clear, however, that these jets volition not beryllium delivered successful clip for Ukraine's expected counter-offensive. President Volodymyr Zelensky has already announced that this cognition volition spell up without waiting for Western aircraft.

Some experts question the interaction F-16s could person successful this war.

Prof Justin Bronk, Senior Research Fellow astatine the Royal United Service Institute (RUSI), says that these jets would supply an other furniture of defence but "wouldn't crook the warfare astir connected their own".

Even with F-16 jets, "Ukrainian pilots would inactive person to alert precise debased anyplace adjacent the beforehand lines due to the fact that of Russia's ground-based menace and that would bounds effectual rocket range," Prof Bronk explains. "And it besides means employing aerial powerfulness successful the mode the West did successful wars similar Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan, isn't imaginable successful Ukraine."

Logistical challenges rise questions astir whether it's worthy the effort to nonstop F-16s to Ukraine. It's not conscionable astir grooming pilots and mechanics - the infrastructure indispensable beryllium upgraded arsenic well.

F-16s are designed for precise creaseless and agelong runways. Ukraine volition person to accommodate its existent airfields to conscionable those requirements - resurface them, cleanable them and widen them.

"But doing that volition beryllium disposable to the Russians from abstraction and done quality quality sources," Prof Bronk argues. "And if you lone bash 1 oregon 2 bases, and past effort to acceptable up crushed enactment to run F-15s oregon F-16s, past Russians volition spot it and they volition onslaught it.

"So, you would person to bash tons of them. Then you're into the question - is that worthy the fig of skilled unit and the magnitude of governmental effort and logistical enactment that could different beryllium utilized for different things similar tanks and artillery, oregon ground-based aerial defence systems?"

For now, Ukrainian pilots similar Pumba, Silk and Juice volition person to trust connected their aged Soviet-era fighters and onslaught jets.

When an alarm signals a caller combat mission, they unreserved towards their aircrafts. They springiness the thumbs up to mechanics to corroborate that each systems connected committee are working.

Some of them person flown much than 100 combat missions. But they cognize that each formation could beryllium their last.