When the first F-16 Fighting Falcons arrived in Ukraine in the summer of 2024, a lot of people expected dogfights. What Ukraine got instead was a night shift. Its F-16s have spent most of the war hunting cruise missiles and attack drones over Ukrainian cities, and on 29 September 2026 the commander of the Ukrainian Air Force put a number on it.

Speaking at a meeting with Lockheed Martin representatives, Lt Gen Anatolii Kryvonozhko said Ukrainian F-16 pilots have shot down more than 3,150 aerial targets, including 666 cruise missiles and about 2,500 drones of various types. They have also flown more than 650 strikes against Russian ground targets.

Those are Ukraine’s own figures, and they come with a caveat: the Air Force did not say over what period they were counted, or how each kill was confirmed. But even as a claim, the scale is striking for a fleet that numbers in the dozens, not the hundreds.

What the numbers say

Do the arithmetic and the picture is clear. Cruise missiles and drones account for virtually the entire tally, about 3,166 of the 3,150-plus targets. This is not an air-superiority fighter winning duels over the front. It is an interceptor, flying air-defence patrols against the missiles and Shahed-type drones that Russia launches at Ukraine almost every night.

It is also exactly the job the F-16 is good at when paired with the right weapons. A fighter can move to where a missile raid is heading far faster than a ground-based air-defence battery, and it can engage drones with munitions that cost far less than many ground-launched interceptors.

The Block 70/72 question

The meeting with Lockheed Martin was not only a chance to share statistics. According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the two sides discussed the prospect of Ukraine moving to the newest F-16 Block 70/72, which has an AESA radar, a modern cockpit and a much longer structural life than the older F-16AM/BM jets Ukraine has received from European donors.

Conor McGuire, who leads F-16 capability development at Lockheed Martin, acknowledged the Ukrainian pilots’ performance and said the company is committed to improving the capabilities of the aircraft Ukraine already flies. No contract, quantity or timeline was announced.

More jets are coming, slowly

The announcement landed on the same day Volodymyr Zelensky said Belgium would transfer three more F-16s by the end of 2026, the first of 53 Belgian jets eventually pledged. Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have already sent aircraft. Ukraine has also lost several F-16s and pilots in combat since 2024, which is part of why every additional airframe matters.

Ammunition is the other constraint, as Kryvonozhko made plain. A fighter that can shoot down several cruise missiles in a single sortie is only as useful as the missiles hanging under its wings. On the evidence of these figures, Ukraine’s pilots are not the limiting factor.

Sources: Ukrainian Air Force / Armed Forces of Ukraine statement (29 September 2026), Militarnyi, Defence Industry Europe, Defence Blog, United24 Media