| ▲ | bell-cot 4 hours ago | |||||||||||||
Yeah, obviously F-16's & humans scale very poorly for this. However: - At one-a-day scale, political and risk considerations probably favor the expensive solution. - Using F-16's reveals nothing about your current anti-drone defenses. (Yeah, it's also a real-world basic competence test for your air force - for better and for worse.) - If your intel people want more data on the drones, an F-16 can haul a whole lotta intel-gathering equipment to the show. - If you're dealing internally with some head-in-the-sand traditionalists dragging their heels on updating your doctrine/equipment/training to deal with drones, then "real world, right now" examples are probably useful. (BTW - do the articles say "a2a missile" anywhere? F-16's typically mount a 20mm cannon, a cheap drone is not a hard target, and cannon rounds are dirt cheap by compare.) | ||||||||||||||
| ▲ | nradov 4 hours ago | parent [-] | |||||||||||||
Ukrainian F-16s have used cannons to shoot down some Russian drones. Cheaper than a missile, but a somewhat risky maneuver as it requires getting close at low altitude and possibly flying through the exploding debris. https://www.zona-militar.com/en/2026/02/09/ukrainian-f-16am-... | ||||||||||||||
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