Russian Firm Offers $168K Bounty for First Downed F-16 Jet Over Ukraine

A Russian company, FORES has offered a 15 million rubles ($168,000) bounty to the first downed F-16 fighter jet Over Ukraine.

F-16 fighter jets from several European nations are scheduled to join the Ukrainian Air Force (UAF) this summer. Countries including Denmark, the Netherlands and Belgium have pledged to provide some 48 older generation F-16s to the UAF to help bolster its fight against Russia.

The Ekaterinburg-based FORES manufactures proppants for the oil industry. Its director Sergei Shmotyev disclosed the offer to TASS agency on the sidelines of the recent SPIEF conference in St. Petersburg last week.

Earlier, FORES had announced a 5 million ruble bounty for the first German Leopard and American Abrams tanks in service with the Ukrainian Army. Shmotyev said that the company transferred 5 million rubles for the first tank, and 500 thousand rubles for later ones. Now there are more than two dozen damaged Leopard tanks for which payments to Russian servicemen have been paid or are being processed, FORES said.

The first to receive the payment was the crew of a attack and reconnaissance helicopter. The military received 5 million rubles. The payment for the second damaged tank was 2 million rubles, for all subsequent tanks - 500 thousand rubles. All recipients have been identified.

Ukraine is expecting the F-16s to help it tilt the balance against the currently superior Russian Air Force with its arsenal of Su-34, Su-35, MiG-29 and MiG-31 planes. The F-16s are expected to be armed with a variety of American and European weapons including air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles such as AMRAAM and Scalp/Hammer.

Significantly, the F-16s will be able to communicate better with American and European early warning aircraft, satellites and drones compared to the current Ukrainian Soviet Era fighter aircraft.