{"id":66328,"date":"2026-07-22T23:29:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T21:29:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/?p=66328"},"modified":"2026-07-28T05:57:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T03:57:14","slug":"the-united-states-confirms-the-downing-of-a-russian-fighter-by-a-ukrainian-f-16-fighter","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/2026\/07\/22\/the-united-states-confirms-the-downing-of-a-russian-fighter-by-a-ukrainian-f-16-fighter\/","title":{"rendered":"The United States confirms the downing of a Russian fighter by a Ukrainian F-16 fighter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Despite being in service for over 50 years, the F-16 Fighting Falcon remains an excellent multi-purpose combat aircraft.<\/p>\n

An F-16 fighter jet defeated the larger and more modern Russian Su-35S with a little Swedish help<\/a><\/rel>
\nThe new tactics implemented by the Ukrainian Air Force with its F-16 fighters<\/a><\/rel><\/p>\n

Last year I already addressed here the downing of a Russian Su-35S fighter by a Ukrainian F-16<\/a>, possibly an F-16AM donated by the Netherlands and which used an AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missile. On July 8, 2026, news broke of another Russian Su-35 shot down<\/a>, information confirmed by both Ukrainian and Russian sources.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
A Russian Sukhoi Su-35S fighter jet. Today it is one of Russia's most advanced fighter jets and the backbone of its air defense (Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense).<\/div>\n

This Tuesday, July 21, General John Caine, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff<\/strong>, confirmed the downing of a Russian fighter jet by a Ukrainian F-16<\/a>: \"We recently witnessed the first air-to-air engagement in which a Ukrainian F-16 shot down a Russian fighter jet<\/strong>. Over the past several years, with the support of many partners, Ukraine has significantly strengthened its layered air defense system.\"<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
Two Ukrainian F-16AMs with an air combat armament configuration: AIM-120 AMRAAM medium-range air-to-air missiles on wingtip pylons, and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles on underwing pylons (Photo: Ukrainian Air Force).<\/div>\n

General Caine made that announcement during a Senate hearing.<\/strong> Although he did not specify the model, it is likely referring to the air combat of July 8. That same day, a Russian source confirmed that the Russian pilot ejected and was rescued by his military<\/a>, and also noted that the downed aircraft was a Su-35<\/strong>, a more modern and advanced aircraft than the F-16s used by Ukraine, which are all second-year aircraft with many years of service.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
A Sukhoi Su-35S fighter jet of the Russian Air Force (Photo: Russian Ministry of Defense).<\/div>\n

The Su-35S made its first flight in 2008 and is currently one of the main fighter jets of the Russian Air Force.<\/strong> Russia has been progressively losing control of Ukrainian airspace due to Ukrainian air defenses and the appearance of new fighter jets donated to Ukraine by allied countries, such as the F-16 and the Mirage 2000. According to the independent website oryxspioenkop.com<\/a>, Russia has already lost 188 aircraft in this war<\/strong>, 159 of them destroyed and 29 damaged.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/div>\n
A Ukrainian F-16AM armed with AIM-120 AMRAAM and AIM-9 Sidewinder missiles (Photo: Ukrainian Air Force<\/a>).<\/div>\n

According to figures published by that source, Russia has lost 142 combat aircraft<\/strong> (fighters and attack aircraft), including a Su-57 stealth aircraft<\/a> that was damaged in a Ukrainian attack on a Russian base in June 2024. Including the downing on July 8, Russia has now lost 9 Su-35S fighters.<\/strong> The same source indicates that Ukraine has lost 4 F-16s and 1 Mirage 2000<\/a>. Forecasts indicate that Ukraine expects to receive more than 100 F-16s from various countries<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

---<\/p>\n

Main photo: Ukrainian Air Force.<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite being in service for over 50 years, the F-16 Fighting Falcon remains an excellent multi-purpose combat aircraft.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[19534,11546],"tags":[1257,26048,10731,11372,16153,16145,15307,16152,10431],"class_list":["post-66328","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-defense-portada-eng","category-military-aviation","tag-general-dynamics-f-16-fighting-falcon","tag-john-daniel-razin-caine","tag-russia","tag-russian-air-force","tag-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-of-2022","tag-sukhoi-su-35","tag-ukraine","tag-ukrainian-air-force","tag-united-states"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-10-02 08:51:18","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66328","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66328"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66328\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66328"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66328"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.outono.net\/elentir\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66328"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}