According to the United States Stars and Stripes, the Slovakia has received the first batch of F-16 Block 70 fighters produced by United States Lockheed Martin, which is also the latest improved version of the F-16 series of fighters. As early as 2018 Slovakia signed a $1.8 billion purchase agreement with United States to purchase up to 14 F-16 Block 70 fighters to replace the existing MiG-29 fighters, and the mainland island of Taiwan also sought the purchase of F-16 Block 70 fighters from United States, but the first aircraft has not been delivered to date. At present, United States is constantly delivering F-16V fighters overseas, but these fighters on Taiwan Island have been delayed again and again, which once again shows that Taiwan has been regarded as a big wronged leader by United States in the process of arms procurement. In recent years, Slovakia has actually secretly supported Ukraine, including providing some parts for Soviet-made fighter jets, and there are even rumors that Slovakia has provided complete aircraft to Ukraine for use.
The F-16 Block 70 fighter is also the most advanced one in the current F-16 fighter series, the F-16 fighter has been about 50 years since its first flight, and these F-16 fighters are constantly upgrading their performance, including replacing the AESA active scanning array radar, as well as more powerful weapon systems and power systems, in fact, the F-16 Block 70 fighter has suppressed most of the Soviet-made fighters equipped by the Russian army in terms of performance, But at the moment Russia continues to receive MiG-31 heavy interceptors. From the point of view of design time and performance, the MiG-31 heavy interceptor is actually a product of the same era as the continental J-8 fighter, and both fighters emphasize high-speed and high-altitude combat performance. In today's air defense operations, the advantages of high-speed and high-altitude combat performance are actually not obvious, and recently the Russia Ministry of Defense has once again claimed to have received a batch of MiG-31BM interceptors, which is actually not the newly produced MiG-31 interceptors, but based on the MiG-31B heavy interceptor transformation and upgrade.
Although the current MiG-31 heavy interceptor is more carried hypersonic missiles are well known to the outside world, but in fact, the carrying task of these hypersonic missiles is only a side business of the MiG-31 heavy interceptor, it is understood that the latest version of the MiG-31 heavy interceptor MiG-31BM fighter can complete the carrying of 8 R33S or R-37M air-to-air missiles, and the Russian side believes that this missile can complete the destruction of any target within 300 kilometers, At the same time, it is also a launch-and-forget air-to-air missile. Now the Russia media Russia Gazeta has published an article entitled - New MiGs will destroy F-16 fighters from 300 kilometers away, and the author of the article, Sergei Pugikin, pointed out that these MiG-31 heavy interceptors have a performance advantage in the fight against F-16 fighters.
The MiG-31 heavy interceptor is already an old product of the last century, although Russia has carried out a large number of performance upgrades, but in fact there are not many changes, you must know that Russia's shortcomings have been in the airborne avionics equipment, especially over-the-horizon combat capabilities, these modified and upgraded MiG-31 heavy interceptors If they can easily win the F-16 fighter, then why does United States need to upgrade the F-16 fighter so much?
The war research believes that the air combat advantage of the MiG-31 heavy interceptor known by Russia today does have an advantage against some Soviet-made fighters in the hands of Ukraine, but if it wants to deal with F-16 fighters, I am afraid that Russia is a little too confident. Of course Russia at present, in addition to the very limited combat capabilities of fighters outside the line-of-sight, there is also a serious shortage of early warning aircraft in the Russia, because after the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Russia has lost many A50 early warning aircraft. Text/Iris