Colonel Krystian Zięć, an Alioth Foundation expert and CEO of Alioth Group, talked about the importance of this issue in the context of the ongoing war in Ukraine on RMF FM radio.
“There is no country that has built a security system or an airspace chess system based only on a ground-based system,” Colonel Krystian Zięć, former commander of the 32nd Tactical Air Base and an F-16 pilot-instructor, told RMF FM’s Afternoon Talk.
Once again, our experts are sharing their knowledge and experience in the media, raising public awareness of security and defense topics. Krystian Zięć was interviewed by editor Piotr Salak, among others, about whether it is a matter of time that Western aircraft will arrive in Ukraine.
– “Of course it is. It is only a matter of time. If the U.S. government actually wants to resolve the situation in favor of Ukraine, there will definitely have to be tactical aircraft there. An example of this is to test what the quality of the Ukrainian pilot is like,” – Col. Zion added.
When asked about the impact on the war in Ukraine of the transfer of MiG-29 aircraft by Poland and Slovakia, he replied: “They will definitely have some impact, they will definitely have a positive impact. Better something than nothing. Any tactical aircraft that has the ability to dislodge armaments or launch missiles, drop bombs, is an added value. How big this value is, in his opinion, is determined, among other things, by the training of the pilots. If today the armed forces of Ukraine use the MiG-29 aircraft on a daily basis, they have a logistics chain, a training system, the ability to use this system, then definitely this MiG-29 aircraft will be of better use to them.” – RMF FM guest stated.
The pilot’s transition from MiG-29 to F-16 control, Colonel Zięć compared it to putting a driver of a small Fiat behind the wheel of an F1 car. Here nothing will be gained. It is exactly the same with the transition of a MiG-29 pilot to an F-16.
According to Krystian Zięcia, there is no such ground-based system capable of destroying airborne platforms, whether they are aircraft, drones or cheap drones, in an effective, efficient and cost-effective way: “Imagine that sometimes one such missile, which is supposed to ‘destroy something there in the air,’ can cost even millions. And sometimes we destroy some means of aerial attack that costs much less,” said the former F-16 pilot. “There is no such country, even the country supporting Ukraine today, that would be financially able to bear shooting all these expensive acquisitions at everything that moves in the air.” – he added.
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