A military expert estimated the number of remaining F-16 aircraft in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) lost almost half of the received American F-16 fighter jets. Retired colonel and military expert Anatoly Matviychuk expressed this opinion on Thursday, August 21. He noted that Russia is countering them with the help of an air defense system.

"They were given somewhere in the range of 15 pieces. <...> About seven to eight left. We fight them with all kinds. As soon as they get into our air defense zone, we strike," the specialist said in a conversation with Lenta.Ru .

Matviychuk recalled that there had not yet been air battles in the special military operation zone. According to him, Ukraine is taking care of its F-16s, and they are more often used as an aerial platform for launching Storm Shadow and SCALP missiles.

Fighter of discord: The United States wanted to supply Turkey with the F-35

In response, Washington offers Ankara to take apart the S-400s purchased from Moscow.

Earlier in the day, the North American Joint Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and one KS-135 tanker aircraft to escort a Russian Il-20 military aircraft found in the Alaska air defense identification zone, RT reports.

This was announced by NORAD on the social network X (ex. Twitter). It is noted that the Russian aircraft remained in international airspace. He did not enter the sovereign airspace of the United States or Canada.

In August, Rostec Corporation reported that Su-35s with long—range air-to-air missiles prevented enemy aircraft from reaching the line of use of weapons, acting in combat tandem with Su-34 bombers.

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