Recently, the U.S. Air Force lost an F-35 fighter jet in a crash, prompting Russian propagandists to spread a false narrative that these aircraft are allegedly unsuitable for operation in Arctic or similar climates.
This "disinformation" resonated with Romanians, who recalled a past incident involving their F-16 fighter jet, which was unable to take off in winter, leading to various absurd claims about the operational capabilities of these aircraft.
Specifically, on January 29, 2025, an American F-35 crashed while flying over Alaska due to a sudden malfunction of the aircraft, although the pilot managed to eject safely.
Currently, American sources are not rushing to provide their versions or assessments regarding this incident; however, Russian propagandists have taken up this task.
As reported by the Romanian portal Defense Romania, "TASS" published comments from one Aleksandr Stepanov, "director of programs at the Academy of Political Sciences," claiming that the aforementioned crash in Alaska demonstrates the limitations of the U.S. in operating the F-35 in Arctic conditions, despite the fact that these aircraft cost at least $81 million each.
In this context, Romanians decided to recall a specific incident that occurred on December 1, 2018, namely that on that day one of the Romanian Air Force's F-16s failed to take off, leading to rumors that the entire reason was the unsuitability of these fighters for winter operations.
However, the paradox is that there was actually nothing wrong with the F-16 itself. The issue arose because the flight technical personnel of the Romanian Air Force negligently failed to clear the runway of snow and ice. The extent of this negligence became evident during the attempted takeoff, making it impossible to continue the F-16's launch.
Importantly, the Romanian military learned the necessary lessons from this incident, and such situations where the F-16s supposedly cannot take off in winter have not recurred.
Earlier, Defense Express reported that Romanians shared their transition from MiG-21 to F-16, which is quite interesting, and also noted that although Romania has received only 9 out of 32 F-16s purchased from Norway, they already have a plan for their decommissioning.
