Worthless Flaps

 

As another Lame Cherry exclusive in matter anti matter.

When the General Dynamics F 16 jet appeared in the US arsenal, it was the premier fighter jet in the world. It was a perfect missile platform.

So when word came down that the NATO group was trying to unload it's old F 16s on Ukraine, while taking in the suicide nuclear platform F 35, I honestly did not give it much thought, until a Russian began doing a critique of the F 16 in Ukraine. I am not going to critique the Russian defense systems, as that is not what this examination is about. It is what purpose the F 16 would have in Ukraine in combat?

F-16s useless in Ukraine – Wagner pilot

It’s unclear what the US-made jets could achieve considering Russia’s vast network of air defense systems, the PMC’s member claims

As I stated what would the F 16 do in Ukraine with all of those expensive missiles?

Here is what the bird would carry, and that includes iron bombs. That would mean the jet would not be capable of maneuvering in a dog fight. Even in a dog fight a jet would need to jettison it's auxiliary fuel tanks and that would also mean attempting to avoid Russian SAM missiles.

• Hardpoints: 2 × wing-tip air-to-air missile launch rails, 6 × under-wing, and 3 × under-fuselage pylon (2 of 3 for sensors) stations with a capacity of up to 17,000 lb (7,700 kg) of stores
• Rockets:
  
  • 4 × LAU-61/LAU-68 rocket pods (each with 19/7 × Hydra 70 mm/APKWS^[332] rockets, respectively)
  • 4 × LAU-5003 rocket pods (each with 19 × CRV7 70 mm rockets)
  • 4 × LAU-10 rocket pods (each with 4 × Zuni 127 mm rockets)
• Missiles:
  
  • Air-to-air missiles:
    • 6 × AIM-9 Sidewinder
    • 6 × AIM-120 AMRAAM
    • 6 × IRIS-T
    • 6 × Python-4
    • 6 × Python-5
  • Air-to-surface missiles:
    • 6 × AGM-65 Maverick
    • 2 × AGM-88 HARM
    • AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM)
    • 4 × AGM-154 Joint Standoff Weapon (JSOW)
  • Anti-ship missiles:
    • 2 × AGM-84 Harpoon
    • 4 × AGM-119 Penguin
• Bombs:
  
  • 8 × CBU-87 Combined Effects Munition
  • 8 × CBU-89 Gator mine
  • 8 × CBU-97 Sensor Fuzed Weapon
  • 4 × Mark 84 general-purpose bombs
  • 8 × Mark 83 GP bombs
  • 12 × Mark 82 GP bombs
  • 8 × GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb (SDB)
  • 4 × GBU-10 Paveway II
  • 6 × GBU-12 Paveway II
  • 4 × GBU-24 Paveway III
  • 4 × GBU-27 Paveway III
  • 4 × Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) series
  • Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser (WCMD)
  • B61 nuclear bomb
  • B83 nuclear bomb

What the Russians have in Ukraine are primarily infantry and artillery. That means no jets to shoot at and no tanks to shoot at, not much use for missiles.
That would leave iron bombs. They are effective against artillery and massed troops but Russia does have SAM systems to protect it's artillery and it's infantry is moving in small groups of around 8 Soldiers.

What the Lame Cherry is attempting to state in this is, the F 16 is worthless in Ukraine. It is as worthless as an A 10 Warthog, which flies slow and low, because of the defenses that Russia has. The A 10 would be like shooting a fish in the barrel.

The one weapon the F 16 has which would compliment close air cover, as that is what the Nazi of Ukraine need is the one cannon.

• Guns: 1 × 20 mm (0.787 in) M61A1 Vulcan 6-barrel rotary cannon, 511 rounds

If you noticed the F 16 carries 511 rounds. The Vulcan fires up to 6000 rounds per minute.  So the F 16 can fire 12 seconds with it's cannon.  So 500 rounds every 10 seconds, means the cannon if firing 10 rounds a second. Even at that, I doubt the F 16 Nazi pilots of Ukraine could hit with a burst an artillery piece.

I doubt that the Russian infantry of 8 men companies is going to be economical in blasting them with cannon shells.

Ukraine does not have a great deal of fuel for fighter jets, so flying a fighter for 12 seconds of combat to maybe get an artillery piece or a few Soldiers is not going to stop Russia or be economical. 

In reality, if they still made them, Ukraine's Nazi would do better with General George Patton's P 47 Thunderbolt, which was the scourge of the Nazi's in World War II. This was the finest weapon's platform of the war. It had machine guns, cannon, rockets, could fly close air support and drop bombs on anything.

That is how you fight infantry and artillery. Worked splendidly well in Korea and probably had something like that in Vietnam to start out with, before they started losing the war with missiles and jets.

So the F 16 is just a place to dump things that people want to get rid of. The jet has about a 2% purpose use on a good day. 98% of the time it is worthless.

Nuff Said

agtG