Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon Developments

TomS said:
Opportunistic Minnow said:
isayyo2 said:
JASSM fully integrated on USAF Block 30 F-16s
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Welcome news. The article really bugs me though. "Pre-block"? Do they mean early block? AIUI all production F-16s were members of one block or another. Surely the only pre-block F-16 would be the YF-16?
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"Pre-block" seems to be the shorthand USAF is using for the surviving Block 15, 25, and 30 aircraft, as opposed to "late block" referring to Block 40 and subsequent models.

www.airforcemag.com

F-16s Could Still be Flying Into the 2070s | Air & Space Forces Magazine

The F-16’s sunset years now could come in the 2070s, or later, based on Lockheed Martin’s backlog of F-16 orders and planned upgrades.
www.airforcemag.com www.airforcemag.com
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It's not a term I've really noticed until this year in publications, though it's been used internally by the Air Force for a few years or more.

Post Block: Block 40/42 and 50/52 F-16s that have gone through CCIP ~600 in service
Pre Block: Block 25 and Block 30/32 F-16s serving in the National Guard and Reserve force ~300 in service
  • The Block 25s should be out of frontline service by 2026 with some still serving in training and testing squadrons
  • Unsure when the Block 30/32 will be out of frontline service, they're still receiving a lot of love with "Software Capability Upgrades"
  • The Navy is receiving Block 25 and Block 32s for adversary work, the Navy's "new" F-16s will go under a comprehensive airframe life extension and receive the APG-83 radar. So clearly the older models will still be sticking around for some time...
 
Euugghh post-block is even worse! If you are that desperate for brevity that you can't specify the block in question, it doesn't seem like you have the time to be writing about the F-16 at all. Shorthand? Much as @isayyo2 has done, why don't they try newer and older? As conveyors of a concept go, they are reasonably universal and quite well tested.

It's a post-block.
Which block is it?
Block 52.
If it's a post-block, it can't be a Block 52 and if it's a Block 52, it can't be a post-block......sizzle......

I get it now. That right there is how you defeat an enemy AI!
 
Great piece on the benefits of APG-83 on the F-16s of the National Guard which are Block 30s. With the Block 40/50s being modernized as well, that’ll give the Air Force ~680 AESA equipped F-16s!

www.thedrive.com

New Radars Are Giving Old Air Force F-16s Capabilities Like Never Before

The Scalable Agile Beam Radar is now flying inside 72 Air National Guard F-16s and is already set to go into hundreds more Vipers.
www.thedrive.com www.thedrive.com
 
While the aesa vipers are welcomed, I would rather they spend the money on actually acquiring the f35.
 
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Once Block 4 arrives the floodgates will truly open for the F-35; remember these planes are lasting until 2040 so they’ll end up in the Reserves, National Guard, and potentially sold to foreign users as well.
 
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They've been moving the goal post for years. Don't know why when blk4 comes out that congress will say "ok now build the thing!"
 
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I get your point but, they are a capability increase, now. Not in the far future which may change anyway.NGAD early for example.
 
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www.defensenews.com

An F-16 pilot died when his ejection seat failed. Was it counterfeit?

New details about 1st Lt. David Schmitz's death have come to light in a federal civil lawsuit filed by his wife against three defense companies.
www.defensenews.com www.defensenews.com

An Air Force investigation of a fatal fighter jet crash in 2020 quietly discovered that key components of the pilot’s ejection seat may have been counterfeit, Air Force Times has learned.

First Lt. David Schmitz, an F-16 Fighting Falcon pilot at South Carolina’s Shaw Air Force Base, died June 30, 2020, when his ejection seat malfunctioned as he tried to escape from a failed nighttime landing. He was 32.

The Air Force’s official inquiry in the months following the accident found that electronics inside the seat were scratched, unevenly sanded and showed otherwise shoddy craftsmanship.

That raised red flags at the Air Force Research Laboratory, which called for a closer look to confirm whether the pieces were fraudulent, according to previously unreported slides provided to Air Force Times. It’s unclear whether that question was ever answered.

While the Air Force suspected parts of the seat were counterfeit, it buried the information in a nonpublic section of its accident investigation report.
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aonestudio said:
www.instagram.com

military_buzz on Instagram: "Tim Viper mana suaraaanyaaa.....??? Tim Eagle mana suaranyaaa....??? Yang mau larbug mana suaranyaaa...?? #f16viper #f15eagle #pertahanan #pertahananudara"

897 likes, 153 comments - military_buzz on October 22, 2022: "Tim Viper mana suaraaanyaaa.....??? Tim Eagle mana suaranyaaa....??? Yang mau larbug mana suaranyaaa...?? #f16viper #f15eag..."
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
View attachment 686226View attachment 686227
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Well that's misleading. F-15s fly with two tanks, not one.
 
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32 more F-16 MLU's for Romania. Interesting to note the Tape upgrade to 6.5.2, they'll be some of the most advanced F-16s in Europe until the V models arrived.

Norway will sell 32 of its F-16 fighters to NATO partner Romania. The contract was signed on Nov. 4.
“The agreement signed by the NDMA will help strengthen the air power of one of our allies, at the same time as it will generate revenues for both Norwegian industry and the Norwegian state,” said Norwegian Minister of Defence, Bjørn Arild Gram.

All jets will be modified to the M6.5.2 Romanian configuration prior to delivery starting next year.
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www.regjeringen.no

Norway signs F-16-contract with Romania

The Norwegian Defence Materiel Agency (NDMA) has signed a contract with Romania for the sale of 32 Norwegian F-16 aircraft.
www.regjeringen.no www.regjeringen.no
 
How many early block F-16As have been converted into QF-16A target drones and will there be any QF-16B conversions?

On another note what is the likelihood in the next decade or two of the F-36 Kingsnake derivative of the F-16 being developed and put into production?
 
www.arabnews.com

Ankara expects US ‘green light’ for F-16 sale

ANKARA: Turkiye is confident its long-awaited $6 billion deal to buy F-16 fighter jets will go ahead after the US House of Representatives introduced an amendment to the annual defense budget bill removing a series of hurdles to the sale. On Tuesday, lawmakers in the US Senate and House reached...
www.arabnews.com www.arabnews.com
 
Maro.Kyo said:
The biggest helping hand in recent success of Rafale was LM themselves, or more to be exact the transition of F-16 production lines from FW to Greenville for the sake of F-35s on FW. They've ceased production for a few years during the transition and with current capacity of GV facility they are only able to manufacture four F-16s a month. Not a small number by any means, but their backlogs are full until late 2020s. Add to that the increased program cost of F-16 Block 70/72 which nullified its major advantage over Rafale.
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To give some perspective to what I wrote, I've made a comparison of the LM FW plant with the new GV plant for F-16 as well as few other plants. The satellite image scale differs a little bit but its only marginal.

lm fw.png
lm gv ds kai.jpg

In terms of CAPEX of GV plant, LM said they are looking for ways to expand from current capacity of four F-16s per month, but in reality, they aren't even using the full tooling capacity and are instead known to be manufacturing closer to three aircrafts per month in the moment. Other than that, the GV plant was also where they were supposed to build T-50As had this plane been selected for T-X but that didn't happen. Should the USAF select TF-50 for the ATT or the USN choose T-50A for UJTS, GV plant will indeed see some major CAPEX effort, which could also mean increased F-16 manufacturing capacity should the need arise. We'll see how the outcome of both programs go, but since the selection of ATT and in conjunction the UJTS are only planned for mid-late 2020s, the CAPEX could come too late for the F-16V FMS. Besides, LM and KAI aren't really expecting TF-50 to be selected in the ATT program for obvious reasons. Guess they see more chances in the UJTS.
 
NMaude said:
On another note what is the likelihood in the next decade or two of the F-36 Kingsnake derivative of the F-16 being developed and put into production?
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Kingsnake was an imaginary aircraft created as a what-if when the MR-X was first mentioned. Besides, should the problems with the F-35 supply and sustainment program persist (ie. further delays to the JSE, Milestone C and FRP, promised CFPH not being met, etc etc) and the USAF seriously consider MR-X, I really think that the MR-X should be something like a stealthy, modernized F-16XL. I mean Harry Hillaker himself admitted that F-16XL as a design was more suited to what F-16 was actually doing, so better late than never. Not to mention that the Hush-Kit Kingsnake quite exactly look like a "stealthy F-16XL".
 
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The Dutch cabinet said will look into supplying F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine if the Kyiv government asks for them, the country's media have reported.

During a parliamentary debate last week, foreign affairs minister Wopke Hoekstra said the cabinet would look at such a request with an "open mind".
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news.sky.com

F-16 fighter jets: What are they and could they be sent to help Ukraine?

They can fly at more than 1,200mph and are some of the most advanced aircraft in NATO's fleet. Could the F-16 be sent to Ukraine?
news.sky.com news.sky.com
 
Maro.Kyo said:
Maro.Kyo said:
The biggest helping hand in recent success of Rafale was LM themselves, or more to be exact the transition of F-16 production lines from FW to Greenville for the sake of F-35s on FW. They've ceased production for a few years during the transition and with current capacity of GV facility they are only able to manufacture four F-16s a month. Not a small number by any means, but their backlogs are full until late 2020s. Add to that the increased program cost of F-16 Block 70/72 which nullified its major advantage over Rafale.
Click to expand...
To give some perspective to what I wrote, I've made a comparison of the LM FW plant with the new GV plant for F-16 as well as few other plants. The satellite image scale differs a little bit but its only marginal.

View attachment 690323
View attachment 690324

In terms of CAPEX of GV plant, LM said they are looking for ways to expand from current capacity of four F-16s per month, but in reality, they aren't even using the full tooling capacity and are instead known to be manufacturing closer to three aircrafts per month in the moment. Other than that, the GV plant was also where they were supposed to build T-50As had this plane been selected for T-X but that didn't happen. Should the USAF select TF-50 for the ATT or the USN choose T-50A for UJTS, GV plant will indeed see some major CAPEX effort, which could also mean increased F-16 manufacturing capacity should the need arise. We'll see how the outcome of both programs go, but since the selection of ATT and in conjunction the UJTS are only planned for mid-late 2020s, the CAPEX could come too late for the F-16V FMS. Besides, LM and KAI aren't really expecting TF-50 to be selected in the ATT program for obvious reasons. Guess they see more chances in the UJTS.
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The Fort Worth plant is a legacy "hand me down" from clear back to WWII - its size doesn't really say anything about just how much real estate is needed for an F-16 production line let alone an F-35 line too. We went thru the same "downsizing" of sites when the Super Hornet line was set up in new buildings and the original Curtiss Wright, then McDonnell then McDonnell Douglas buildings were abandoned. The old buildings, including the offices, are simply just sitting there. The production line building (had the iconic McDonnell Aircraft and later McDonnell Douglas lit sign on the face) has been looked at for cargo facilities but that has failed to gain traction. Damage from a tornado a few years ago has not been repaired either so the building(s) are doomed to be demolished whenever a proposal to use the site comes to pass with funding to support it. MQ-25 production will be in a new purpose built site under construction over by Mid-America Airport/Scott AFB in Illinois. T-7A will be assembled (a more apt description) at Lambert within what was built for Eagle and Super Hornet production. If they somehow go to high rate production, there should be sufficient acreage to expand adjacent buildings.

Enjoy the Day! Mark
 
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