Laden with Ukraine’s best air-to-air missiles, precision glide bombs and radar jammers, Ukrainian air force Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters have departed their comfort zone—relatively benign missions intercepting Russian cruise missiles and drones—and are increasingly targeting Russian forces along the 800-mile front line of Russia’s three-year wider war on Ukraine.

More and more photos and videos are appearing online depicting ex-European F-16s streaking over Ukraine, including the most dangerous eastern part of the country. Some are equipped for air-defense patrols, with pairs of AIM-9 infrared-guided missiles and AIM-120 radar-guided missiles along with three underwing and underbelly drop tanks for extra fuel.

Others have equipment for riskier bombing raids: twin pylons carrying eight 250-pound Small Diameter Bombs as well as a centerline AN/ALQ-131 electronic countermeasures pod, all complementing the four air-to-air missiles and two drop tanks.

The latter loadout allows single-seat, supersonic F-16s to engage Russian targets in the air and on the ground—both from scores of miles away—while also detecting and jamming Russian radars and surface-to-air missile batteries. “They act as ‘flying air defense’ with advanced missile warning tech,” the pro-Ukrainian Conflict Intelligence Team analysis group noted.

The AN/ALQ-131 ECM pod is a new and critical capability for the Ukrainian air force, which entered the wider war in February 2022 without significant aerial jammers. That exposed Ukrainian jets to withering Russian missile fire—and resulted in heavy losses early on. The Ukrainians have written off nearly 100 jets, many of them in the chaotic early weeks of the wider Russian invasion.

The 85 F-16s Ukraine is getting from Denmark, The Netherlands, Norway and Belgium are much better-equipped than the country’s pre-war force of ex-Soviet MiG and Sukhoi fighters. In addition to the AN/ALQ-131 jamming pods, which were initially programmed by a team of U.S. Air Force specialists, the F-16s have the option of carrying Pylon Integrated Dispensing System and the Electronic Combat Integrated Pylon Systems: PIDS and ECIPS.

PIDS ejects metal chaff and hot-burning flares to spoof incoming radar- and infrared-guided anti-aircraft missiles. ECIPS houses passive defenses to complement the active chaff and flares, including the AN/ALQ-162 jammer for defeating radars on the ground, as well as an AN/AAR-60 missile warning system for triggering the passive defenses.

All these protective systems do not make F-16s invulnerable. The Ukrainian air force has already lost one F-16 out of the roughly 16 it has so far received from Denmark and The Netherlands. The jet crashed under mysterious circumstances during an air-defense patrol back in August, killing its famous pilot Oleksiy “Moonfish” Mes.

But the AN/ALQ-131 in particular can “give you a pocket of air superiority for a moment’s time to achieve an objective that has strategic importance and impact,” a U.S. Air Force official explained.

That self-protection capability may not endure, however. It’s unclear to what extent the Ukrainians continue to rely on the Americans to program the AN/ALQ-131 pods. If they do still need the Americans, they may soon lose the ability to adapt the ECM pods as the U.S. under President Donald Trump aligns more closely with Russia.