44
Ukraine’s F-16s just shot down 34 of 35 Russian cruise missiles—and new tech may be why
(euromaidanpress.com)
That’s not 16
this post was submitted on 26 Dec 2025
44 points (100.0% liked)
news
816 readers
507 users here now
A lightweight news hub to help decentralize the fediverse load: mirror and discuss headlines here so the giant instance communities aren’t a single choke-point.
Rules:
- Recent news articles only (past 30 days)
- Title must match the headline or neutrally describe the content
- Avoid duplicates & spam (search before posting; batch minor updates).
- Be civil; no hate or personal attacks.
- No link shorteners
- No entire article in the post body
founded 7 months ago
MODERATORS
Indeed, I could swear it's more than double.
The Ukrainian air force's F-16 fighters are now carrying Sniper sensor pods
The camera- and laser-equipped pods open up new capabilities
Sniper-equipped F-16s can use laser-guided rockets and bombs
The APKWS is a laser-guided rocket weighing 15 kg and ranging as far as 11 km. It is ideal for shooting down numerous targets, such as cruise missiles and Shaheds, in just a few passes. It's also cheap compared to bigger air-to-air missiles that, for anti-Shahed missions in particular, are frankly overkill.
A Shahed costs just $50,000. The F-16's infrared-guided air-to-air missile, the AIM-9, costs around $500,000 per round. A single APKWS rocket is priced to move at just $35,000, making it one of the few anti-Shahed munitions in the Ukrainian inventory that's cheaper than its intended target.