Ukrainian F-16 pilots repelled russian attacks with onboard guns for three weeks due to shortage of missiles - Reuters

Ukrainian F-16 fighter squadrons have been in critical condition for more than three weeks due to an acute shortage of American AIM-9 Sidewinder air-to-air missiles. Reuters reports this with reference to its own sources.

The ammunition shortage occurred from late November to mid-December, just when russia was preparing large-scale winter strikes on Ukraine's energy system. At the time of the suspension of supplies, the Ukrainian Armed Forces had such a limited supply of missiles that it was not enough for a full combat duty of the entire aircraft unit.

Due to the lack of the necessary weapons, Ukrainian pilots were forced to resort to extremely risky tactics, using the aircraft's onboard guns to destroy russian drones and missiles. This forced the command to transfer the fighters mainly to daytime flights, since night missions without guided missiles were too dangerous, despite the fact that it was at night that most enemy attacks took place. In addition, Ukrainian specialists tried to get out of the situation by servicing and reusing those missiles that had previously failed during launches.

The situation began to level out only in December, when Western partners transferred new batches of AIM-9s to Ukraine. Although sources do not disclose the full list of supplier countries, it is known that in recent months these missiles have been provided by Germany and Canada, and Ottawa officially confirmed the dispatch of additional ammunition from its warehouses. Despite a partial improvement in logistics, this three-week period demonstrated the critical dependence of the effectiveness of Ukrainian F-16s on the uninterrupted supply of Western weapons.

As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, Ukraine is to receive Mirage 2000-5 aircraft from France, which effectively destroy cruise missiles and attack drones, in particular Shahed. It was also previously reported that in the near future the Armed Forces of Ukraine will receive a significant number of AIM missiles, which effectively destroy enemy cruise missiles, helicopters and jet drones.