In a tweet posted this Tuesday, January 7 on its X account, the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense indicated that the six missiles which were destroyed by a Ukrainian pilot were destroyed during a single flight.
According to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry, this is a completely new record. In a tweet published on his X account, this Tuesday, January 7, the latter indicated “that one F-16 fighter plane (Ukrainian, editor’s note) destroyed six cruise missiles in a single combat exit. This is the first time in history of Fighting Falcon operations.
F-16—Ukrainian pilots set records.
During a massive missile attack on December 13, 2024, an F-16 fighter jet destroyed six cruise missiles in a single combat sortie. This marked the first time in the history of Fighting Falcon operations.ud83dudcf7: UA Air Force pic.twitter.com/GD7iWci66Y
— Defense of Ukraine (@DefenceU) https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1876580538934345854?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
According to the ministry, this record took place during a massive attack led by Russia on December 13, 2024. A day during which Moscow launched nearly 200 drones and more than 90 different missiles in the direction of Ukraine, recalls RBC Ukraine.
For his part, Colonel Yurii Ihnat, head of the public relations department of the Air Force Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who cited the pilot of the F-16, clarified: “Shooting down cruise missiles with a cannon is very risky due to the high speed of the target and the danger of explosion. But I did what instructors in the United States taught me and I managed to achieve it. It turned out that two missiles flying next to each other were destroyed at the same time.”
In detail, the pilot would have shot down the first four cruise missiles thanks to four air-to-air missiles. The other two were then destroyed with the barrel of the device. “A few cannon bursts, then an explosion… then another! ‘A secondary detonation’I thought, but it turned out that there were two missiles”, the pilot said.
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