Poland will upgrade Ukrainian F-16s. They’ll fight jet-powered drones

According to reports by the Interfax-Ukraine and Ukrinform agencies, last Wednesday, Sybiha spent time with Defence Minister Yevhen Chmara securing supplies of this calibre. “We succeeded. I believe we have provided a solution regarding this calibre for a significant period,” he said. He added that ambassadors were involved in the talks, and President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the leaders of partner states “from the front,” while the ministers of defence and foreign affairs contacted their counterparts.

Sybiha separately thanked Spain, Belgium, and Poland. He emphasised that Poland has already begun the process of transferring the cartridges, and the necessary batches are expected to reach Ukraine “very quickly.” “Currently, diplomacy is about specific things – primarily increasing defence capabilities. I think this is one of our success stories. For all of us, it means there will be fewer strikes on Kyiv and other cities,” he noted.

As previously reported by Bloomberg, Ukraine wants to buy tens of thousands of 20mm rounds for F-16 on-board cannons to shoot down Russian jet-powered drones. According to the agency’s sources, an average of about 150 rounds of ammunition is needed to intercept a single UAV, and with the current intensity of attacks, the daily requirement could reach about 10,000 rounds.

The agency’s sources described cannon fire as the cheapest and most quickly available solution. Missiles for systems such as the Patriot are expensive and harder to replenish quickly, while 20mm rounds for the M61 Vulcan cannon, which F-16s are standardly equipped with, are more widely available on the market. Kyiv is in talks with both European governments and private manufacturers.

Sybiha went further than the Bloomberg reports. He announced a “very serious visit” in the near future and expressed hope that one of its results would be a package consisting of several million rounds of this calibre. At the same time, Kyiv is asking partners to order jet interceptor drones from Ukrainian private manufacturers who – according to the minister – are ready to increase production if funds arrive on time.

For months, Russia has been increasing the share of faster, jet-powered versions of drones in attacks on Ukrainian cities. They are significantly faster than the classic, propeller-driven Shaheds and outpace some of the cheap interceptors built for slower targets. According to Sybiha, Ukraine has not yet had time to develop its own capabilities sufficient to systematically combat this class of aircraft, and further strikes are already being prepared. In this gap, F-16 fighter jets, used on a large scale for air defence tasks, have proved to be – alongside classic anti-aircraft systems – the most effective tool available. Ukrainian pilots are using the on-board cannon, among other things, to save more expensive AIM-9 and AIM-120 air-to-air missiles.