Ukraine's air force overhaul: 150 new aircraft needed to replace aging fleet
Although Ukrainians will soon receive their first F-16s, their air force still needs additional support to completely replace the current fleet of ageing Soviet-era machines. Ukrainian armed forces spokesman Ilya Yevlash revealed the exact number of aircraft needed, according to the Unian agency.
Recently, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky calculated that Ukraine needs 120-130 F-16 fighters to fully dominate the Russian Federation's army in the air. As Yevlash now explains, the rearmament of the Air Force involves not just multi-role aircraft. Different types of machines are needed for various tasks.
"At least 150 different types of aircraft are needed," calculates the spokesman for the Ukrainian armed forces. "This includes transport aircraft, aircraft patrolling Ukrainian skies, those destroying small targets, and using them as an air defence system that could deter Russian aviation," he explained. He also added that Ukraine plans to completely rearm the entire air fleet, but it is not known when this will happen. It largely depends on Ukraine's international partners.
Ukraine wants more aircraft
Yevlash does not specifically mention what types of aircraft Ukraine currently needs. He reveals that practically all types of new machines are necessary – attack, multi-role, and transport aircraft. It is known that, for now, the Ukrainians primarily have Soviet-era machines in their arsenal, the most numerous of which are MiG-29s (including units provided by Poland), which can reach speeds of 2.3 Mach (around 2,400 km/h) and can carry weapons with a total weight of up to 5,440 kg on nine hardpoints.
The defenders' army also has Su-25 attack aircraft, which serve as machines supporting mechanized forces and infantry on the ground, as they have much weaker performance than larger fighters. In the case of the Su-25, 10 underwing hardpoints can carry up to 4,300 kg of armament, while the maximum speed of this aircraft is 950 km/h.
As for transport aircraft in the ranks of the Ukrainian army, they primarily consist of Antonovs (An-24, An-70, An-178, and the most numerous An-26) and a dozen or so Ilyushin Il-76s.
The most popular of them, the aforementioned An-26, is a 1960s design powered by two turboprop engines and an auxiliary jet engine. The An-26 has space for 30 paratroopers or 24 stretchers, while the cargo space can accommodate a load weighing up to 5,440 kg. The aircraft can reach speeds of only 540 km/h and can operate at an altitude of 7,600 metres with a range just over 1,000 km.
