According to information published by The Dubrovnik Times on March 17, 2022, the Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković announced that two US F-16 fighter jets would arrive in Zagreb to support Croatia's security.

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F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet (Picture source: U.S DoD)

The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force (USAF).

The Fighting Falcon's key features include a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, a side-mounted control stick to ease control while maneuvering, an ejection seat reclined 30 degrees from vertical to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot, and the first use of a relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire flight control system that helps to make it an agile aircraft.

Highly agile, the F-16 was the first fighter aircraft purpose-built to pull 9-g maneuvers and can reach a maximum speed of over Mach 2.

Early F-16s could be armed with up to six AIM-9 Sidewinder heat-seeking short-range air-to-air missiles (AAM) by employing rail launchers on each wingtip, as well as radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow medium-range AAMs in a weapons mix.