More Upgrades Seen for USAF F-16s
A U.S. Air Force F-16 sits on the tarmac at the 2011 Paris Air Show / Defense News photo by Bradley Peniston
By DAVE MAJUMDAR • PARIS — The F-35′s delayed arrival means the U.S. Air Force will likely need to upgrade its long-serving F-16s, which make up half the service’s fighter fleet.
Richard Aboulafia, an analyst at the Teal Group, Fairfax, Va., said the Air Force will “look closely at [Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA)] radar upgrades beyond the current (V)9 program, but also ongoing engine power and reliability improvements, [electronic warfare] and cockpit mods, and of course any necessary structural work for aging airframes.”
Lockheed Martin, which builds the aircraft, has some ideas as to what the service needs to do to keep the Fighting Falcon in fighting trim into the 2030s.
The jet has to have its structural life extended from the standard 8,000 hours to between 10,000 and 12,000 hours. Certain parts of the structure will have to be modified, said Bill McHenry, Lockheed’s F-16 business development chief.
Currently, the Air Force is evaluating the structural life left in its newer Block 40 and 50 F-16s, McHenry said. Those aircraft might have life left in them past 8,000 hours because they have been flown in relatively benign configurations, he said.
The older Block 25s and 30s have been flown hard in configurations that are not conducive to extended airframe life; for example, carrying asymmetrical loads.
McHenry said retrofitting structural upgrades should not be a problem. The key to keeping the aircraft relevant is the avionics.
McHenry said that AESA radars from Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are likely to have to compete to win a contract to replace the existing radar.
Further consideration is being given to adding the Multi-function Advanced Data-Link (MADL) from the F-35 on to the F-16, which would allow the aircraft to be interoperable with fifth-generation stealth fighters. Such upgrades should be fairly simple because of the F-16’s hardware architecture, McHenry said. “We’re very proud of the fact that we offer our customers options,” he said.
June 24th, 2011 at 11:01 pm
Sounds to me like buying to new F-16s would be much more effective than wastuing more money on the F-35!
June 27th, 2011 at 5:10 pm
Seems like it would be a straightforward matter to upgrade the USAF F-16′s to Block 60 which already has AESA RADAR, Conformal fuel tanks, Fiber optic data link, improved engines, and compatibility with the AGM-84E SLAM. This would avoid delays with development since it is already a packaged system being built now.
Only thing I might add would be the Infra red search and track system being developed by Lockheed.
June 28th, 2011 at 1:21 pm
We covered this in the 90′s… the Generals said “we’ll never buy another 4th gen fighter”. We told them about the real possibility of 5th gen problems to include F-22 grounding and F-35 slip. Their answer was “we’ll accept the risk”. My question is, who’s risk anyway? The pilot’s flying old fighters, the american public who expects viable defense strategies. The USAF air superiority mafia ensured that they will sacrifice all for a few high tech aircraft when in reality, if we continued to buy 4th gen aircraft(f-16 blk60 and F-15 Silent Eagle), we would have no problems today. 5th gen aircraft could have gone the route of black programs and procured in the same small number. In the next war, numbers are really going to count, a few high tech fighters with limited numbers of missiles won’t get the job done… anybody knows that!
July 1st, 2011 at 10:54 pm
#2 Anlushac11 had it right,add the Infra red search and track system,AESA RADAR, Conformal fuel tanks, Fiber optic data link, improved engines, and compatibility with the AGM-84E SLAM if it’s going to be done @ least it should have the basic standard tools.also the f-22 may be useful battleing terror types but it’s been DISRESPECTED WAY TO LONG (it’s all about air superiority u.s has lost some of that after the gov/usaf degrade f-22 , dew time updating it in the same way as the f-16. if it was’t for war after war & another war we could do it all
July 9th, 2011 at 11:57 pm
Since the F-35 came out after the F-22 and is still in development we will see some of the newer technology developed for the F-35 migrate into the F-22. I believe this is already starting to happen.
As more gear is added to the F-16 and its weight and wing loading rise the main thing the F-16 needs now is a more powerful engine to keep its thrust to weight ratio.