Almost all Russian missiles intercepted by F-16 pilots overnight

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/12/23/8013110/

22 comments

  3. >”Out of 35 cruise missiles, 34 were shot down, mainly by F-16 aircraft intercepting these missiles, for which we thank our brave pilots.”

    thats seriously impressive

  4. Ok, 34 out 35 cruise missiles were intercepted, that’s a 97% interception rate, but somehow several regions are out of eletriticty in Ukraine. So, what hit the energy infrastructure?

  5. Cruise missles can fly for several hours at a time. I bet its the coolest target practice these pilots will ever see

  6. Volunteering in Kyiv atm and am eternally grateful for the protection provided by the UAF. It’s an honor just to be amongst the Ukrainian defenders to be honest

  7. Ok stupid question time – what would happen if one of these planes opened up with their cannons on a cruise missile. Would the rounds do anything? I used to do this in video games and they always blew up so I am really hoping those game developers didn’t steer me wrong here.

  8. A few things:

    That article is poorly written, and there was some clarifications issues by the AFU. They mention Kinzhal, and infer that it was 34 of 35 of them shot down. They make it seem like it was all Kinzhals, which is impossible. A F-16 is not shooting down a Ballistic missile in its terminal phase. Thats not a capability that exists, even for top of the line U.S. A2A weapons. Another article that the AFU put out says it was 38 missiles, of which 35 were cruise missiles (Kalibr) and 3 were Kinzhals. F-16’s shooting down Kalibrs is totally possible and well within the capability of what they have. My guess is other systems took down those Kinzhals, like Patriot.

    So, on to math, which I always find fascinating. They launched 38 Missiles, and 678 attack drones. Back of the napkin math here..

    35 Kalibrs – $1M each or so.

    3 Kinzhals – $10M each

    678 Attack Drones – Don’t know the models here, but assuming Geran 2, cost is around $80k or so for each drone.

    35M + 30M + $54M = $119M.

    Russia likely spent $100M+ in one nights worth of attacks.

  10. The world becomes more like Ace Combat every day apparently.

  11. I’m very happy to see our (former) F16’s are being put to good use.

    Now get more missiles to Ukrain.

  12. This is probably possible thanks to all the anti air targeting this year. Hopefully we see more of this as it continues getting wrecked. Fuck Putin

  13. That’s why stealth cruise missiles gives you such advantage. Harder to detect by radars, harder to hit by heat-seeking missiles. Good attack force is a combination of cheap missiles and high-end stealth missiles.

  14. 34 out of 35 cruise missiles downed – almost entirely by F-16 pilots.
    Ukrainian aviators just pulled off one of the most impressive air defense performances of the entire war. Flying Western jets they’ve only had for a year, against a barrage meant to cripple infrastructure on Christmas Eve.
    Absolute legends. Slava Ukraini! 🇺🇦✈️

  15. Materiel put to good use. Rather than collecting dust, it’s saving lives. Those pilots are heroes. Obligatory fuck Putin and his oligarch henchmen.

  16. I’m worried about the Shaheds carrying air2air missiles.

  18. Pretty impressive considering the F-16 was introduced almost 50 years ago.

  19. My question is why do Ukrainian F-16’s not go after the bombers themselves?

  20. So happy our old f-16 are doing worthwhile work over there.

  22. Give them way more F16s and missiles. We’re getting paid for all of this, stop hamstringing Ukraine and let them stomp the aggressors into the dirt.

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