Western training did not prepare Ukraine’s F-16 pilots for the kind of warfare they face in the skies over their homeland.
And so, they’ve had to come up with tactics of their own, from low-altitude maneuvers, to baiting out enemy missile fire, a Ukrainian pilot said in a video interview published by the country’s air force.
The pilot, one of the first Ukrainians trained to fly an F-16, did not describe in detail the discrepancy between training and battlefield conditions.
But he said that new tactics are needed for the kinds of engagements they face on the regular: destroying cruise missiles, shooting down drones, and taking on enemy planes near the front line, where Russian air defenses are lethal.
“When we returned home from training, we faced the reality: the tactics we were taught abroad didn’t quite match the war we’re fighting,” said the pilot, whose name and face were not revealed in the interview.
Training-battlefield mismatch strikes again
His words align with the experiences of other Ukrainians who had gone through training courses with foreign instructors, whether they fight in the air or on the ground; on foot or steering a vehicle.
As early as 2023, Ukrainian infantrymen were complaining that NATO training prepared them for NATO-style combat: combined-arms operation with plentiful fire support and sufficient cover.
Instead, they faced a battlefield crisscrossed by trenches that wouldn’t look out of place a century ago, under swarms of unmanned drones, always watching for targets to pick off. A battlefield, in which they often found themselves short on just about everything except the enemy.
Operators of Western tanks faced a similar problem, as demonstrated by the near-total loss of the US’s entire supply of 31 Abrams main battle tanks in less than two years. The role of this tank has since evolved from a breakthrough weapon into a sparingly-used infantry support platform, wrapped in blankets of electronic jamming.
Based on the F-16 pilot’s description of his overseas training, the fliers can probably relate to their ground-bound comrades.
“Those tactics were based on the kinds of wars our partners had fought in before. But this war is fundamentally different,” he said.
According to him, English proficiency was one of the most difficult parts of the preparation. The video showed how pilots often practiced their English skills in between sorties, with flash cards of English words and tenses posted all around their base.
"It was very hard, because after a combat sortie, as a rule, a pilot has to rest, because he does not know whether at some moment he might fly again," he said.
Valuable platform for air defense, targeted bombing
The pilot used to fly Soviet-made jets in the opening days of the invasion before being selected to train to fly an F-16. While this American-made fighter fought in dozens of wars and can be considered venerable, it was still a meaningful upgrade for Ukraine’s air force, with its meager fleet of aging MiGs.
Ukraine has officially received 44 of the 87 F-16s promised by European countries. The pilots and crews were trained in Romania by a coalition of NATO member states, including the US.
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The first of Ukraine's F-16s joined the war in August 2024, used mainly to destroy attack drones and cruise missiles. Four F-16s have been shot down so far but the rest managed to achieve some good results in air defense.
During a Russian missile attack in December, Ukrainian forces shot down 34 of 35 cruise missiles, "mainly" using the F-16s. In January 2025, a single pilot took out six cruise missiles, according to Ukraine's air force command.
When they aren’t shooting down missiles and drones, the F-16s are busy jamming Russian radar, lobbing satellite-guided bombs at Russian troops, and engaging in combat with enemy aircraft.
Tangoing with the Russians
The front line is heavily guarded by enemy surface-to-air missiles and aircraft like the Su-35, Su-57, and MiG-31. Almost every mission to the front line involves dealing with air-to-air missiles from enemy jets.
“They can stay in standby mode, waiting for our groups to fly in at high altitudes. Unfortunately, we don’t have that advantage,” the pilot said. “Because of this, we have to fly lower to avoid the threat from surface-to-air missile systems.”
Low-altitude maneuvers make it harder for enemy radar and missile guidance systems to acquire and track the Ukrainian planes.
But this is often insufficient. The pilot said that sometimes, escort fighters have to intentionally expose themselves to fire from enemy aircraft. This wastes the enemy’s missiles, making them less likely to hit the Ukrainian planes armed with precision bombs intended for Russian ground targets.
“We worked in a group of three planes and forced the enemy to launch two missiles from different directions,” the pilot described, recalling one such mission.
“As a result, we gave our strike plane the chance to destroy the target and let the whole group return safely to the airfield.”
