With a 245-airplane firm-order backlog and two new versions in flight test, the Lockheed Martin F-16 is far from ready for the golf course, even 30 years after its first flight.
Pilot training for the United Arab Emirates' F-16E/F, flown in December, is due to be starting as the show opens. Lockheed Martin is building 55 F-16Es and 25 F-16Fs under a unique commercial-type contract with the UAE. The fighter not only has a heavyweight 51,000-pound airframe and a new engine—the GF F110-GE-132 delivers 90% as much military power as the original F-16 enjoyed in full burner—but an entirely new avionics system.
The Northrop Grumman APG-80 active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar uses the same technology as the APG-81 for the JSF and the new radar for the F/A-22; bulky external targeting pods are replaced by a largely internal system; and the Falcon Edge electronic warfare system is designed to locate threats accurately in bearing and range.
The Advanced Block 50/52+ configuration—the basis for Israel's F-16I Soufa (Storm), which made its first flight at the end of 2003—shares many features of the F-16E/F but has an evolutionary cockpit and the mechanically scanned APG-68(V)9 radar. The F-16I is designed for long-range strike, with provision for 600-gallon fuel tanks and a missionized aft cockpit, and will carry the Python 5 air-to-air missile.
The USAF, meanwhile, is part-way through major upgrades on its 1,360-aircraft F-16 force, and is looking for new improvements. The 630 older Block 25, 30 and 32 fighters have been fitted with GPS, night-vision cockpits and the situational awareness data link (SADL) under a program completed in March. Meanwhile, the massive Common Configuration Implementation Program (CCIP) is about half completed, bringing Block 40/42 and Block 50/52 fighters to a common standard, with a new computer, Link 16 datalink, advanced IFF and provisions for new weapons, including the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile and the winged, extended range Wind Corrected Munitions Dispenser. Also on order is the Lockheed Martin Sniper targeting pod, a vast improvement in range and image quality over the old LANTIRN.
The Air Force is seeking funds to put the APG-68(V)9 radar on as many of its F-16s as possible. The new radar has 30% more search range than earlier APG-68s, but it also has a high-resolution SAR mode, which allows the fighter to target elements of hostile missile systems in bad weather. In conjunction with the latest R7 version of the Raytheon ASQ-213 HARM Targeting System, the goal is to improve the USAF's destruction of enemy air defenses (DEAD) capability, allowing surface-to-air threats to be attacked by JDAMs and similar weapons. Lockheed Martin Corp. is at OE15 and Chalet D10-11.
