Three Ukrainian MiGs Down! Ex-Swedish Gripens Are The Fix.

Ukraine needs fighters that shoot farther and get off the ground faster.

A Ukrainian air force Mikoyan MiG-29

This story was commissioned by Euromaidan Press. Since Substack pays only around a fifth of my bills, I have no choice but to take on a lot of freelance work. I still want my Substack audience to know where to read those freelance stories, however. Hence this excerpt.

The Ukrainian air force lost three MiG-29 fighters on or just before June 27: one in the air and two on the ground.

The air force isn’t about to run out of MiGs any time soon. But the losses are a painful reminder that Russia’s own fighters still out-shoot Ukraine’s fighters. And Ukrainian jets are extremely vulnerable when they’re not flying.

Fortunately for the battered Ukrainian air arm, it’s about to get new jets that address both vulnerabilities. The Swedish-designed Saab JAS-39 shoots farther than many Russian planes. And it can get off the ground more quickly in order to dodge Russian attacks.

“The JAS-39 is the only fighter in the world for which I am ready to sell my soul,” famous Ukrainian fighter pilot Vadym Voroshylov wrote as he began training to fly the Swedish jet. “Even to exchange my only love—the MiG-29.”

The June 27 MiG losses came like a dreadful drumbeat. One of the twin-engine, supersonic fighters crashed during a combat mission over Poltava Oblast in central Ukraine, possibly as the result of a long-range shot by a Russian fighter firing an R-37 missile. The Ukrainian pilot ejected and survived.

Around the same time, Russian drones struck two of the Soviet-vintage MiGs on the ground at Voznesensk airfield in Mykolaiv Oblast in southern Ukraine. The three losses bring to 38 the number of MiG-29s the Ukrainian air force has written off since Russia widened its war on Ukraine in February 2022.

Read the rest at Euromaidan Press.