It is reported that for the first time in history, an F-16 has shot down a Russian Su-35 “Flanker”.

A Russian Su-35 was ambushed yesterday in the Sumy region. A Swedish Saab 340 AEW&C detected it 200–300 km from the border and relayed the data to an F-16.

❗️It is reported that for the first time in history, an F-16 has shot down a Russian Su-35 “Flanker”.A Russian Su-35 was ambushed yesterday in the Sumy region. A Swedish Saab 340 AEW&C detected it 200–300 km from the border and relayed the data to an F-16.

— Anton Gerashchenko (@antongerashchenko.bsky.social) 2025-06-09T12:43:40.849Z



by Orcasystems99

22 comments

  1. That is some range. I wonder if Ukraine is testing some of the new long-range Sidewinders? I find that implausible myself.

  2. Well that one would be nice. I suppose if Russia’s A-50 fleet is so degraded now as to make them usually absent from the battlefield then having the Saab AEW&C around might be a huge force-multiplier for Ukraine – it’s not intuitive but the absence of those aircraft massively degrades a fighter’s combat effectiveness, particularly against an opponent that does have them.

  6. “It is reported”

    Can we get some proper sources on this instead of the usual weasel words from Geraschenko? I want it to be true, because it would mean Ukraine is integrating its resources very well…

  7. The one shot down last week was claimed to have been from an F16 so was that not true or is this actually the story from a few days ago?

  8. And the picture shows not one of the planes mentioned in the title….

  9. Saab Erieye AEW&C + F-16 with AIM-120 sounds like a perfect combination to stop the Russian glide bomb terror on Ukraine.

  12. This is a really, really big deal, if true. That means that there’s an operational Ukrainian AWACS doing the targeting, linked to an older F-16 variant. The F-16 does not need to turn on the radar. The missile doesn’t have to turn on the radar until it’s very close to the target, and the AWACS is hanging out far out of range. With no Russian AWACS to support their planes, they are nearly blind aside from the surface SAM radars that don’t have nearly the same range as AWACS. If this is how this played out, it’s going to be a huge problem for the Russian air force to provide ground attack support to their front line. If I was a Russian air force commander, I would be more concerned about this development than the drones burning their bombers.

  13. I doubt this can be repeated. My understanding is that the Russians are launching their glide bombs from 70km behind the front line. The old AIM missiles Ukraine has barely have that range even if fired from directly on the front line, which is a non-starter because it puts the F-16 in too much risk to be that close.

    This must have been an aberration, with the Russian plane getting far closer to the front than it needed to be. The Russians will learn their lesson and keep well away from the front in future sorties.

  14. Russians are using SU-35’s to escort other planes which are carrying bombs. I believe russian planes lobbing glide bombs need to get to less than hundred kilometers from their target. So maybe 50 kilometers from the border.

    The Saab AWACS detected it 100 to 200 kilometers from the border, 100 kilometers before it was within range of launching the bombs. If the russian planes were flying at the speed of about 1000 kilometers per hour, this gave the Ukrainian F-16 maybe six minutes to approach the russians and fire its missile. So if it was there, it had ample time to do the intercept. AMRAAM range is from 70 to 120 kilometers depending on model.

    AMRAAM is fire and forget after it has received its target.

    I anticipate unless russians pull back their planes, shoot downs like this will continue.

  15. We already have one battlefield enabler that previously we depended on the US for, AWACS. Thanks to the Saab 340 we’re one step closer to military independence in Europe. Pretty soon we’ll have battle tested ship mount missile launchers. Slowly but surely we’re getting there.

  16. It would be absolutely hilarious if cold war Nato air power is already better than russias present air force. I guess you cannot do shit against Awacs + datalink.

  17. Wasnt this the entire purpose of the swedish awacs?

    I could have sworn when it was first announced that they were receiving them that they intended to use an uplink of sorts to guide missiles to russian aircraft outside the radar range of f-16s?

  18. Lol, Sweden is getting russia back for all the times it invades their airspace

  19. So this is very good news for SAAB.

    During the Canadian 5th gen fighter comp, SAAB made the point that the 4.5 gen grippen was a cheaper launch platform with easily upgraded electronic warfare systems which, in their opinion, is more important than stealth in modern warfare.

    SU 35 is not stealth but is considered significantly superior to the f16 and this incident seems to support the point.

  21. So, when I was little, I played an F-16 game on the Sega Master System that literally was you flying against the Flanker.

    Crazy that this is the first time they’ve every actually squared off.

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