Russian military bloggers reacted to the arrival of the F-16s by trying to downplay their potential effect on the battlefield - directly undermining Russian information operations aimed at presenting the delivery of the F-16s and other Western weapons systems as an insurmountable "red line".
This is stated in the daily analysis of the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Several Russian military bloggers claimed that Western and Ukrainian media are "overexposing" The arrival of the F-16s was intended to distract attention from the battlefield failures, and many military bloggers immediately began discussing how Russian forces would begin targeting and destroying the planes.
Russian commentators and officials in the information space often argue that the delivery of Western weapons to Ukraine represents a red line, which if crossed would force Russia to launch an escalating response.
However, Russia has repeatedly demonstrated that invoking alleged "red lines" is a reflexive control technique aimed at forcing the West to refrain from providing additional military assistance to Ukraine.
Since the beginning of the war, Western and Ukrainian policies have repeatedly crossed self-defined "red lines" to Russia, without provoking a significant Russian reaction, which according to comments by Russian bloggers will also be the case with the Russian response to the F-16.
Ukraine confirmed that it had received the first batch of F-16 fighters manufactured in the United States. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on August 4 that Ukraine had received an unspecified number of F-16s from unspecified Western countries and specifically thanked Denmark, the Netherlands and the United States.
The Economist reported on August 4 that Ukraine had so far received 10 of the promised 79 fighters and that by the end of 2024 Ukrainian forces should be able to fly 20 F-16s.
ISW continues to assess that Ukraine will need a significant number of F-16s to field them on the scale needed for Ukraine to successfully integrate the aircraft into its broader air defense umbrella.
Ukraine will also need to continue efforts to target Russian air defense assets in the Russian rear and in occupied Ukraine with long-range weapons provided by the West in order to be able to use F-16s.
The Russian defense industry continues to produce missiles using Western components.
The Ukraine-based open source organization Frontelligence Insight analyzed documents that the Ukrainian group "Cyber Resistance" received from a military base in Shaykovka, Kaluga Region, and found that Russian forces are using SN-99 navigation modules, which are largely composed of Western components, in Kh-32 cruise missiles.
Frontelligence Insight found that Russian forces used SN-99 navigation modules manufactured in March 2023 in strikes against Ukraine and that Russian cruise missile manufacturer Raduga Design Bureau was responsible for upgrading SN-99 modules in Kh-32 missiles.
Frontelligence Insight notes that it is unclear how Russian defense companies obtain Western components for SN-99 navigation modules.
The UK-based organization Conflict Armament Research previously published an investigation in September 2022 that found Western components in the navigation systems of Kh-101 and Kh-59 cruise missiles.