Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon News and Developments

Forest Green said:
Fores - an oil&gas sector company - figures, they must be getting desperate, another bad day for that sector today.
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Now that makes sense given how much success in the last few months Ukraine has had in damaging and destroying oil-refineries and storage depots, they figure that once the Ukrainians have more F-16s they'll start going on the offensive targeting more oil-refineries.
 
aonestudio said:
https://news.northropgrumman.com/ne...onic-warfare-suite-cleared-for-flight-testinghttps://www.airandspaceforces.com/new-f-16-electronic-warfare-system-flight-test/
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Here's a summary:
The IVEWS will be internal to the F-16 and will replace the centerline-mounted AN/ALQ-131 self-defense jamming pod, freeing one external station on the fighter for a fuel tank or weapon. The system will use antennas located elsewhere on the fuselage; the outer mold line of the aircraft hasn’t been altered, Conroy said.
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The IVEWS is intended to provide the F-16 with electronic warfare capabilities “on a par with fifth-generation aircraft, significantly enhancing survivability for operations in contested and congested electromagnetic spectrum environments,” Northrop said. “Its ultra-wideband suite can detect, identify, and counter advanced radio frequency threats, including millimeter wave systems.”
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Conroy said the system will be especially helpful in coping with mobile anti-aircraft radars and missiles whose position is unknown at the start of a mission and which may turn on and fire on F-16s when directly overhead or nearby.
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Conroy said the system could permit the F-16 to remain credible into the 2040s, and is being evaluated by a number of F-16 user countries, particularly those buying the F-16 Block 70. Turkey has signed a letter of agreement selecting the IVEWS for its Block 70s.
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aonestudio said:
https://www.twz.com/air/aggressor-f-16-fleet-set-to-be-slashed-by-air-force
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I expect the USAF is looking this way, https://www.flightglobal.com/milita...e-in-autonomous-aggressor-role/159438.article

That was also the original intention of Blue Force Technologies before Andruil bought them, to market the Fury as an aggressor aircraft. I expect a LO CCA type has such a significant cost reduction for aggressor work, while also being able to achieve some LO, that it is compelling for the USAF. Doesn't solve the impending issue of not enough manned aggressor aircraft.
 
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Ozair said:
I expect the USAF is looking this way, https://www.flightglobal.com/milita...e-in-autonomous-aggressor-role/159438.article

That was also the original intention of Blue Force Technologies before Andruil bought them, to market the Fury as an aggressor aircraft. I expect a LO CCA type has such a significant cost reduction for aggressor work, while also being able to achieve some LO, that it is compelling for the USAF. Doesn't solve the impending issue of not enough manned aggressor aircraft.
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They also have the likes of ATAC offering Aggressor services.
 
MODERATOR NOTE:

The core of the forum is inbuilt technology but there's a related interest on the evolution of successful designs and its variants. This thread was opened in 2012 to record F16 developments.
Any other aspects, like operations, should be in dedicated thread. If it doesn't exists, feel free to open it.
The forum most important purpose is research thus threads should ideally kept structured with relevant data and accessible. Wrong placed information ultimately renders useful the search engine

Since the F16 was transferred to Ukraine, this thread is suffering from clutter (either non development related and off-topic)
To preserve the functionality of the present thread, every UAF F-16 related post, any kind of it, should be in this dedicated thread:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/ukrainian-air-force-f-16.44427/
Also for F-16 news unrelated with technological evolution, there's a dedicated thread:
https://www.secretprojects.co.uk/threads/lockheed-martin-f-16-fighting-falcon-news.44475/
Thanks
 
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snne said:
A Turkish "Solotürk" aerobatic demo F-16 almost crashed into the crowd at Teknofest

https://twitter.com/x/status/1841908039797879271
View: https://x.com/tolgaozbek_com/status/1841908039797879271


Imagine the horror, thank God it didn't crash...

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sknyliv_air_show_disaster
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They grounded the aircraft, apparently the Flight Control Computer malfunctioned aircraft performed a barrel roll when the pilot was pulling away from the crowd. Damn lucky he gained control, that aircraft was heading straight into the crowd otherwise..
https://twitter.com/x/status/1842203585511035172
View: https://x.com/avionot/status/1842203585511035172
 
One would have assumed 100% investigation into how things work would have been a priority. These things are almost at a level you can make Civil Wars out of.
 
I only see a pilot error. I don´t see why there is a polemic with the FCS here. On the contrary it performed fairly well, rocket rolling the aircraft back on its belly before performing a sharp climb/ high AoA pull-up away from the crowd (you can even see a stable G-loaded 90cdeg turn afterward).
The FCS is what was functioning here. The grounding might be more on the adrenaline shot or, perhaps more appropriately, the plunging Belle's décolleté where the falcon eyed pilot lost his SA. ;)
 
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Entirely political commentary:

Those shows are now meant for the 2028 Presidential Elections; there might be a new candidate. Giving up the company after that UCAV, to control the country, keeping things as is. If a plane crashes or looks like crashing it might decrease the crowds in the future events. The pilot is most likely a marked man now. First comment.

Second, my one. For "sabotage to happen" or some kill-switch there should have been something. As big as taking part in a recent strike. This fails to explain why the plane could recover. If there was anything like that in the first place.

No comments from some others.

Hence the final one that keeps the option of political advantage; might return to it later on. Citing a low level Phantom run that hit the top of a minaret so many years ago.
 
TomcatViP said:
I only see a pilot error. I don´t see why there is a polemic with the FCS here. On the contrary it performed fairly well, rocket rolling the aircraft back on its belly before performing a sharp climb/ high AoA pull-up away from the crowd (you can even see a stable G-loaded 90cdeg turn afterward).
The FCS is what was functioning here. The grounding might be more on the adrenaline shot or, perhaps more appropriately, the plunging Belle's décolleté where the falcon eyed pilot lost his SA. ;)
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That's my thinking as well.
Flying directly towards and over the crowd instead of parallel to it isn't the FCS fault...
 
This is not F-16 news, that should be on F-16 Ukr AF
 
Forest Green said:
https://www.twz.com/air/polands-f-16s-cleared-for-major-upgrades
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Given Poland's immediate neighbour Belarus and further east (Russia) this doesn't surprise me at all. The F-16V upgrade will definitely make the Polish F-16s a great deal more capable than they already are with the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 for example will add a great deal more and I wonder how much it could be used for ECM purposes for example. Given commonality between the F-16V and F-35 avionics this F-16 MLU will apparently also help Poland to ease in its new F-35s as they are delivered (No doubt helping the ground crews to familiarise themselves with the much more sophisticated F-35 when it arrives).

On another note I wonder if after the F-16V upgrade the Polish F-16s will be wired to carry special-stores, the B61 Mod 12 in particular?
 
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First Bulgarian Block 70 takes flight:
Lockheed Martin [...] today announced the successful flight of the first Bulgarian F-16 Block 70. 
The flight occurred Oct. 22 at 9:30 a.m. EDT at Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Greenville, South Carolina, with test pilot Charles "Seeker" Hoag successfully conducting multiple system tests to validate performance and supersonic capabilities during the flight.
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https://news.lockheedmartin.com/202...ght-of-First-Bulgarian-F-16-Block-70-Aircraft
 

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