• A Ukrainian partisan group, Atesh, said it found two Russian ships hiding in Crimea.

• Ukraine has damaged much of Russia's fleet there despite having no real navy itself.

• The group said it gave Ukraine its information, and there was "no doubt" more ships would sink soon.

Ukraine may have more discovered new targets in its quest to take down Russia's once formidable Black Sea Fleet.

Ukrainian partisans said they'd found two Russian Project 775 landing ships near the city of Sevastopol in Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Russia annexed in 2014.

The Atesh group, a resistance movement of Ukrainians and Tatars in Crimea, says it constantly monitors the coast in Crimea, particularly in Sevastopol.

It identified one of the ships as the Konstantin Olshansky, which Russia captured from Ukraine in 2014.

Russian forces, it said, had hidden the ships amid cranes and port infrastructure, hoping to save them.

Atesh said it passed its information to Ukraine's military, and "there is no doubt that soon more of the enemy's ships will sink," according to a translation by the Kyiv Post.

It shared what it said were images of the ships, showing them in a small bay near trees and infrastructure.

Business Insider couldn't independently verify the group's claims.

But Ukraine has been hugely successful at targeting Russia's Black Sea Fleet in Sevastopol, despite Ukraine not having any warships itself.

Using sea drones and missiles, Ukraine has hammered much of the fleet. Ukraine's military said earlier this year that it had destroyed one-third of it, and the UK's Ministry of Defence said in March that the fleet was "functionally inactive."

Ukraine said last month that Russia had pulled its last Black Sea Fleet patrol ship out from Crimea.

Ukraine's attacks have included one that damaged the Konstantin Olshansky, according to Ukrainian officials.

The Atesh group previously said it had helped Ukraine attack Russia's ships.

It said last year that it got information from Russian commanders who were frustrated at not being paid by their military, which Ukraine then used to plan a major attack on the Black Sea Fleet.

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

Images of Ukraine's new F-16s and their weapons hint at what the US-made fighter jets may start off doing against the Russians

• Ukraine finally got its first batch of American-made F-16 fighter jets from NATO.

• An official video and photos show the new F-16s armed with only air-to-air missiles.

• The loadout offers insight into what the F-16s may initially be tasked with.

American-made F-16 fighter jets are at last flying above Ukraine, and some of the first images of the planes and their missile loadouts hint at what their starting mission may be.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy published the first official imagery of the F-16s in action on Sunday, calling their arrival a "new phase of development" for the country's air force. Until now, Kyiv had been operating only an aging assortment of Soviet fighter jets.

Hype aside, top US generals, Ukrainian officials, and experts have cautioned that the decades-old F-16 won't necessarily be a game changer. It faces a difficult operating environment of Russian warplanes and sophisticated air-defense systems, and Kyiv simply won't have enough aircraft to make a substantial impact.

That said, depending on its weapons configuration, the F-16 can still be quite effective in certain roles. One video published by Zelenskyy on Sunday hints at what missions the new fighter jets could be flying against the Russians early on.

Shooting down missiles and more

The video shows a Ukrainian F-16 armed with the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, known as the AMRAAM, and the AIM-9 missile. Other imagery has shown the jets in this configuration as well.

This particular loadout, which doesn't include any air-to-ground munitions, suggests Ukraine may initially use its F-16s in an air-to-air role, as opposed to close-air support (CAS) or suppression and destruction of enemy air defenses (SEAD/DEAD) missions.

Some airpower experts identified the AIM-120 seen in the video and other images as an AIM-120B, specifically a CATM-120B, which is an inert training weapon intended to reflect the real deal.

The AIM-120 is an all-weather, beyond-visual-range missile with active radar that makes it less dependent on the aircraft, but it comes in different variants with different ranges and capabilities.

Ukrainian officials have previously signaled that it could get the newest AIM-120Ds, which have a greater range than the older versions. But experts have speculated that given the risk of them falling into Russian hands, this is unlikely. They've said it's possible Kyiv could get or even already has the C variant.

The other weapon visible in the F-16 imagery from Ukraine, the AIM-9 Sidewinder, is a supersonic, short-range air-to-air missile that first entered service in the 1950s. Though it's an older system, it's regarded as highly successful.

Ukraine has the AIM-9M, a variant with a range of 10 miles, which appears to be what's in the video. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that Ukraine would get the newest AIM-9X variant.

If the Ukrainian air forces were to get their hands on the AIM-120D and AIM-9X, the country's F-16s could fly with the most advanced US air-to-air missiles, giving them an improved air combat capability.

Next to the air-to-air missiles on the F-16s are self-defense Pylon Integrated Dispensing System Plus (PIDS+) systems, which have sensors that can help the jets detect incoming threats such as enemy missiles.

The air-to-air missiles seen at the unveiling of Ukraine's new F-16 fighter suggest "an initial focus on internal air defence sorties against Shahed/Geran one-way attack drones and cruise missiles," Justin Bronk, an airpower and technology expert at the Royal United Services Institute think tank in London, noted in a post on X.

And Peter Layton, another RUSI expert, told The Kyiv Independent that such a mission would make sense given Ukraine's current F-16 fleet size. He explained that "with only 10 [jets] — so say seven available daily for operations — using [them] for air defense against cruise missiles and Shahed drones seems reasonable."

Fighting other aircraft

With the air-to-air capabilities observed so far, the Ukrainians could also attempt to use its F-16s to target the Su-34 fighter-bombers dropping fearsome glide bombs or combat aircraft such as the MiG-31 or Su-35, but reach and Russian tactics make doing so a challenge.

Some Russian aircraft release munitions and then immediately pull away, making them harder to engage. For other aircraft, Ukraine would probably need to put its F-16s within reach of long-range Russian air-to-air missiles, such as the R-37, as well as its ground-based air-defense systems.

Vincent Aiello, a former US naval aviator who flew the F-16, said that even though Russia operated formidable jets backed by tough defenses, Ukraine could still find ways to engage those successfully.

It's not always about the plane. "You can come up with tactics — whether it's speed, altitude, deception, jamming, whatever — where you can still have an advantage and hopefully knock out the enemy aircraft," he told Business Insider.

Ukraine's military leadership has signaled, though, that it doesn't intend to put its new fighters, of which there's only a limited supply, at great risk.

Col. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi, the country's new top general, told The Guardian earlier this month that the arrival of the F-16s would help strengthen Ukraine's air defenses. These have been greatly strained throughout the war. But he said Ukraine wouldn't want them too close to the front lines, where they'd be at greater risk of being shot down.

A dynamic fighter

While Zelenskyy's video and the other images have shown Ukraine's F-16s with only air-to-air missiles, that doesn't necessarily mean the fighter jets will just be used for air engagements. Ukraine can also use them in an air-to-ground role, specifically targeting Russian air-defense systems, but these are much riskier, more-complex operations.

Ukraine already has US-provided AGM-88 HARM missiles, or high-speed anti-radiation missiles, that can hunt down radar systems. Kyiv previously jury-rigged them on its Soviet-era aircraft, but they'll be more effective when fired from an F-16.

Mike Torrealday, a retired US Air Force colonel who flew combat operations in the Middle East with the F-16, called the fighter jet a "very capable airplane."

"It can do all roles that are required, from surface attack, to air-to-air, to maritime attack, to any of that stuff," he told BI.

"I think the strength that they're gaining is just the versatility of the airplane," he said of Ukraine and its newly acquired multi-role fighter. "And as I think we've seen, the Ukrainians are very versatile at applying all kinds of emerging technologies into existing systems or just creating whole new ones."

Aiello said that while the F-16 brought an increased capability to Ukraine's existing fleet, there was likely to be a learning curve because the country was so used to its Soviet fighters.

So far, Ukraine's F-16s appear to have flown in only ceremonial roles, as they did during a flyover on Sunday in a video shared by the country's air force. It's unclear when the jets will be used in combat.

At tens of millions of dollars apiece, F-16s are quite costly, and Ukraine doesn't have many to expend. Kyiv is likely to be more risk-averse with its fighters, especially as it waits for more of them to arrive, but there's always the possibility of a bold play.

For now, though, the long-awaited arrival of the fighters in Ukraine is likely to provide the country with a critical morale boost as its forces continue to defend against the grueling Russian invasion.

"We have made possible what was our ambition, our defense need," Zelenskyy said on Sunday. "Now the F-16s are a reality, a reality in our skies."

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT

F-16s Delivered To Ukraine With Advanced Countermeasure Pods For Self-Protection

As reported, after many months of negotiations and training of pilots and ground crews, Ukraine has finally taken delivery of its first batch of F-16 Vipers. These donated F-16AM/BM Mid Life Upgrade (MLU) configured jets represent a big leap forward in capability for the Ukrainian Air Force, but they will also be one of Russia’s top targets. While a wide array of weapons could become available to them, Ukraine’s Vipers have so far been configured strictly for air defense, but they are also equipped with a unique self-protection system that can go a long way to keeping Russian SAMs and air-to-air missiles at bay.

Join us for an in-depth look at the news surrounding this historic moment for the Ukrainian Air Force and at the exact F-16s and their stores, including their self-protection countermeasure and electronic warfare pylons, that are now blasting through Ukrainian skies.

AfriPrime App link:  FREE to download...

https://www.amazon.com/Africircle-AfriPrime/dp/B0D2M3F2JT