Lockheed Martin announced Wednesday in Singapore that it will -- reluctantly, perhaps -- offer customers an upgraded version of the F-16, the F-16V. You can upgrade the planes you have now or even order new ones.
The announcement is a logical follow-on to the Air Force's recent decision to upgrade 300 or more of its later model F-16s. The key to the Air Force upgrades and those being offered to foreign customers is the addition of modern, super high tech "active electronically scanned array radars" and corresponding battle management software.
Lockheed executive Bill McHenry tells the Star-Telegram the company has been working on how to integrate the new radars and associated equipment into the existing F-16s for a couple of years.
Add a new mission computer to analyze, sort and present the radar data for the pilot and some other cockpit upgrades and the F-16 becomes a much more capable aircraft. Data links will enable the F-16s to communicate with and work alongside Air Force F-22s and eventually F-35s, once the Air Force and foreign allies begin fielding those planes.
“We’ve found many air force’s are going to be operating F-16s for years to come, alongside the F-35,” said McHenry, Lockheed’s head of F-16 sales. “This makes the F-16 more complimentary to the F-35.”
AESA radar has been around for more than a decade and is a key feature in F-22 and F-35 technology, and is being installed by competitors in their non-stealth fighter aircraft. It was also installed in the UAE's Block 60 F-16s a few years back.
With the Air Force seeing its hopes of fielding new F-35 squadrons slipping farther and farther into the future, and the high cost not coming down, the service recently announced it planned to spend $2.8 billion over the next decade or more to upgrade about 350 F-16s with AESA radar being the centerpiece of that effort.
No word yet on the cost of upgrading older F-16s, but probably far, far less than F-35s. If you take the Air Force's estimated cost of $2.8 billion it works out to $8 million each for a major upgrade that makes the aircraft far more capable.
Original Article
Source: star-telegram
Author: Bob Cox
The announcement is a logical follow-on to the Air Force's recent decision to upgrade 300 or more of its later model F-16s. The key to the Air Force upgrades and those being offered to foreign customers is the addition of modern, super high tech "active electronically scanned array radars" and corresponding battle management software.
Lockheed executive Bill McHenry tells the Star-Telegram the company has been working on how to integrate the new radars and associated equipment into the existing F-16s for a couple of years.
Add a new mission computer to analyze, sort and present the radar data for the pilot and some other cockpit upgrades and the F-16 becomes a much more capable aircraft. Data links will enable the F-16s to communicate with and work alongside Air Force F-22s and eventually F-35s, once the Air Force and foreign allies begin fielding those planes.
“We’ve found many air force’s are going to be operating F-16s for years to come, alongside the F-35,” said McHenry, Lockheed’s head of F-16 sales. “This makes the F-16 more complimentary to the F-35.”
AESA radar has been around for more than a decade and is a key feature in F-22 and F-35 technology, and is being installed by competitors in their non-stealth fighter aircraft. It was also installed in the UAE's Block 60 F-16s a few years back.
With the Air Force seeing its hopes of fielding new F-35 squadrons slipping farther and farther into the future, and the high cost not coming down, the service recently announced it planned to spend $2.8 billion over the next decade or more to upgrade about 350 F-16s with AESA radar being the centerpiece of that effort.
No word yet on the cost of upgrading older F-16s, but probably far, far less than F-35s. If you take the Air Force's estimated cost of $2.8 billion it works out to $8 million each for a major upgrade that makes the aircraft far more capable.
Original Article
Source: star-telegram
Author: Bob Cox
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