April 1, 2025:
Mirage-2000 fighters finally arrived in Ukraine during February of this year. Ukrainian pilots had earlier been trained in France to fly the Mirage aircraft. France only has about 40 Mirage-2000 fighters available and most of these are apparently going to Ukraine.
The 17-t0n Mirage-2000 is a single engine, single and two-seat delta-wing fighter/fighter-bomber with a max speed of 2,336 kilometers and top altitude of 17 kilometers. Max range is 1,500 kilometers and the aircraft can carry up to 6.3 tons of weapons.
Including Ukraine, the Mirage-2000 is operated by ten countries. Ukraine is going to use them to deliver the Anglo-French Scalp air-to-ground guided missile. The Scalp is NATO-standard capable and has been used a lot by Ukraine, delivered by their MiG and Sukhoi aircraft. Also used are several other types of missiles and guided bombs. The Mirage-2000 can also be useful in shooting down Russian cruise missiles and drones.
Meanwhile Ukraine continues to receive former European F-16 jets. As of March, Ukraine has received 85 F-16s contributed by the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. France has sent over a dozen Mirage 2000 fighters. Most of the required Ukrainian F-16 pilots have completed their training and most of these F-16s will be operational before the end of the year. Ukraine will use these fighters to seize control of the air near the Russian border. Currently, Russian warplanes launch attacks from inside Russia using guided bombs and missiles. Ukrainian air defenses, using American and European air-defense systems plus F-16s, prevent Russian aircraft from entering Ukrainian airspace and intercept most of the Russian missiles launched from inside Russia.
Ukraine has lost most of its Soviet era Russian warplanes in combat since the 2022 Russian invasion. Eastern European nations which had been members of the old Soviet Union’s Warsaw Pact Alliance still had some Russian-designed fighters, including Mig-29s, and sent those to Ukraine. Those were mostly lost too. After that NATO was the only source of replacement aircraft and the first of 128 F-16s began arriving earlier in 2024. The United States backed their European allies in sending F-16s to Ukraine. These countries have received new F-35s recently to replace the older F-16s. There are several hundred European and American F-16s available for shipment to Ukraine and Ukraine is eager to get as many F-16s as they can. The current Ukrainian goal is to have at least 128 F-16s. The Americans are also sending current models of missiles and bombs F-16s are equipped to use.
The American F-16 fighter is the most widely used combat aircraft in the 21st Century. An F-16 first flew fifty years ago, and the Americans didn’t realize how many F-16 fans were pilots in the Ukrainian Air Force. A growing number of Ukrainian pilots have completed their training in F-16s and deliveries of dozens of F-16s have begun. F-16s have been the world’s most popular post-Cold War combat aircraft. Communist governments and the Soviet Union collapsed by 1991 and eastern European nations, recently under communist rule, wanted to join NATO so the Russians, Communist or not, would be less likely to return. Since the 1990s these former Communist controlled nations joined NATO and have been replacing their Russian weapons with Western models.
The F-16 is one of the most modified jet fighters in service. While most are still called the F-16C, there are actually seven major mods, identified by block number like 32, 40, 42, 50, 52, 60, 70 and 72, plus the Israeli F-16I, which is a major modification of the Block 52. The F-16D is a two seat trainer version of F-16Cs. The various block mods included a large variety of new components and can choose from five different engines, four sets of avionics, five generations of electronic warfare gear, five radars and many other mechanical, software, cockpit and electrical mods.
Until Block 70 came along, the most advanced F-16 was the F-16 Block 60. The best example of this is a special version of the Block 60 developed for the UAE (United Arab Emirates). The UAE bought 80 Desert Falcons, the F-16Es which are optimized for air combat. It is a 22 ton aircraft based on the Block 52 model, which the KF-16 was originally, but with an AESA radar and lots of other additional useful accessories. Block 70 goes beyond Block 60, especially in terms of electronics and airframe enhancement to extend flight life.
The most successful F-16 user is Israel which set a number of combat records with its F-16s. Israel plans to keep some of its late model F-16s flying until 2030 as it retires the oldest ones. At the end of 2016, Israel retired the last of its 125 F-16A fighters. The first 70 were acquired in 1980 and 1981 and included 8 two-seater F-16B trainers. One of the F-16As achieved a record by being the single F-16 with the most air-to-air kills, 6.5, all achieved in 1982 using three different pilots. Israel received 50 used F-16As in 1994 including 14 B models and used these mainly as trainers.
The Ukrainians are well aware of the F-16’s track record, especially when compared to the MiG-29. That’s why Ukraine keeps asking for F-16s and equivalents like the Mirage-2000.