Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon News and Developments

Ozair said:
I'm surprised the UK hasn't commented on this unless there is an agreement that the aircraft cannot be used near the Falklands.
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I don't think the UK had much say in this. In my opinion, UK was told to be quiet as any British concerns over Falklands were outweighed by US concerns of China getting a larger foothold in Argentina and South America's weapon purchases. Compared to that, the <1% chance that some future Argentina government would actually do something with regards to Falklands was deemed irrelevant.
 
Highly surprised that the F-16 never had a built in ladder like the F-35, was it to avoid weight increases at the time as was the same with the F-15 and F-22.
 
snne said:
Source:https://turdef.com/article/turkiye-s-f-16-viper-modernisation-to-be-divided-by-two

According to the news, 29 Block 50+, which will be upgraded to F-16V Block 70 level, will be modernized at TAI facilities, and 50 Block 40M will be modernized at Eskişehir 1st Air Supply and Maintenance Center.
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Turkish MoND has announced today that they've decided to abandon the modernization of 79 jets to Viper level to make them go through the indigenous Özgür mod instead.

This means that roughly 76-77% of TurAF's F-16 fleet is going to be equipped with indigenous GaN AESA radars, avionics and payloads including CMs-ALBMs, AA missiles and EW pods.

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F-16 Block 70 Modernization Kit Procurement Abandoned!

The package was reduced from $23 billion to $7 billion.
“The initial payment has been made for the F-16 Block 70 procurement. We have invested $1.4 billion. With this, we will purchase 40 F-16 Block 70 Viper aircraft.

We were going to supply 79 modernization kits.

We gave up on these 79. We gave up on this because: TAI is currently in a position to do this F-16 modernization itself. So we transferred them there. We will (only) buy 40 (new F-16V) aircraft.

There are also special munitions. We will buy them. It will be around 6.5-7 billion dollars in total.”

Minister of National Defense Yaşar Güler
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https://twitter.com/x/status/1861484026776953224
View: https://x.com/SavunmaSanayiST/status/1861484026776953224
 
WatcherZero said:
https://www.flightglobal.com/fixed-...-for-domestic-improvement-work/160908.article
Decision could be linked to a Eurofighter purchase.
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They specifically mentioned the indigenous equivalent of Block 70 (F-16 Özgür). Those planes are to still receive new equipment, just not "Viper" equipment (except prolly the SLEP kits)...
snne said:
Turkish MoND has announced today that they've decided to abandon the modernization of 79 jets to Viper level to make them go through the indigenous Özgür mod instead.

This means that roughly 76-77% of TurAF's F-16 fleet is going to be equipped with indigenous GaN AESA radars, avionics and payloads including CMs-ALBMs, AA missiles and EW pods.

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https://twitter.com/x/status/1861484026776953224
View: https://x.com/SavunmaSanayiST/status/1861484026776953224
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This is the unaltered quote:
We gave up on these 79. We gave up on this because: TAI is currently in a position to do this F-16 modernization itself. So we transferred them there. We will (only) buy 40 (new F-16V) aircraft.
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The MoD has time and again said that F-16 procurement and Eurofighter procurement programs are moving and happening independently regardless of one another... And the only thing that could affect the Eurofighter procurement is if the CAATSA gets dropped and TurAF owned F-35s are allowed to fly to Turkey...

You could've just read the post that is above yours, y'know...
 
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snne said:
The MoD has time and again said that F-16 procurement and Eurofighter procurement programs are moving and happening independently regardless of one another... And the only thing that could affect the Eurofighter procurement is if the CAATSA gets dropped and TurAF owned F-35s are allowed to fly to Turkey...

You could've just read the post that is above yours, y'know...
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It frees up a lot of foreign currency that could be used for a different larger foreign purchase. Turkeys foreign reserves have been in general decline trend since 2015 when they were $110bn, almost being wiped out entirely in mid 2020 (down to high of $40bn in the year), they have managed to build it back up to $90bn over the last few years, though obviously the dollar is worth less than it was back then. The Lira has declined in value by over 80% over the last four years (in 2020 you needed 6 Lira to buy 1 dollar, now its 34.6 lira to the dollar), no international seller is going to accept being paid in Lira.

Turkish MoND announced that the amount they were planning to spend in future on the F-16 including the domestic upgrades was going from $23bn to $6-7bn excluding a $1.4bn down payment they had already made for the purchase of the 40 new F-16. The saving comes from cancelling the 79 upgrade kits as well as cancelling the accompanying munitions.

https://www.defensemirror.com/news/...modernization kits, and additional equipment.
 
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Does anyone know if it is possible for the F-16 to carry 8 total AGM-65s with the LAU-88 triple rack and a single Maverick each on stations 3 and 7?
 
Noveos said:
Does anyone know if it is possible for the F-16 to carry 8 total AGM-65s with the LAU-88 triple rack and a single Maverick each on stations 3 and 7?
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AGM-65s go on stations 3/7 only. Maximum number is 6 using the triple rack for AGM-65 A, B and D models. The newer AGM-65G doesn't work with the LAU-88 rack so 2 is the maximum on LAU-117 launchers.
 
USAFE Torrejon AB, Spain 401st TFW/614th TFS "LUCKY DEVILS" F-16C/D Vipers launch out of Doha, Qatar for a 1991 DESERT STORM air to ground strike mission into Iraq, complete with a New Hampshire Air National Guard KC-135E Stratotanker top up prior to their push time.
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View: https://youtu.be/AebebvuF5oQ?si=ov-Z7_wy6SyApy1w

Also present in this footage:
- Spaniards Mirage F-1 and Alphajets
- Close formation medium alt KC-135E refueling
- undelivered asymmetrical ordinance (3x CBU) landing
- full radio chatter
- Chaffs release
 
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Does anyone know what modernization have Korean KF-16 went through recently? I know in mid 2010s there was a BAE contract signed, but I also remember it was very quickly terminated. And since then I can't find any single piece of news pointing to modernization of the block 50 airframes. That's like 130 planes to modernize, a sizable chunk of their air force. It's ten years later now and still no news, which is strange. One would expect something was done, at least domestically by KAI. Yet Google doesn't give anything. Is it really possible that in 2025 Korean Air force is still stuck with largely unmodernized block 50s? (not to mention those few block 30s)
 

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