Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon Developments

View: https://x.com/northropgrumman/status/1827345121462857807


F-16 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) | Northrop Grumman

The AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) is designed to give F-16 electronic warfare (EW) capabilities on a par with fifth-generation aircraft, significantly enhancing survivability for operations in contested and congested electromagnetic spectrum environments.
www.northropgrumman.com
 
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.
 
Forest Green said:
View: https://x.com/AirPowerNEW1/status/1754854540032049435
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Pretty incredible really. The most successful aircraft of its generation.
 

Northrop Grumman Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite Cleared for Flight Testing

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – Sept. 4, 2024 – Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) has completed U.S. Air Force testing in the service’s Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic...
news.northropgrumman.com

New F-16 Electronic Warfare System Enters Flight Test

The F-16's new electronic warfare system, the IVEWS made by Northrop Grumman, has begun flight testing, the company said.
www.airandspaceforces.com
 
aonestudio said:

Northrop Grumman Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite Cleared for Flight Testing

ROLLING MEADOWS, Ill. – Sept. 4, 2024 – Northrop Grumman Corporation’s (NYSE: NOC) AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) has completed U.S. Air Force testing in the service’s Joint Preflight Integration of Munitions and Electronic...
news.northropgrumman.com

New F-16 Electronic Warfare System Enters Flight Test

The F-16's new electronic warfare system, the IVEWS made by Northrop Grumman, has begun flight testing, the company said.
www.airandspaceforces.com
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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:

Aggressor F-16 Fleet Set To Be Slashed By Air Force

Planned cuts to F-16s at Nellis Air Force Base point to a looming aggressor gap and raise questions about the Viper fleet's overall health.
www.twz.com
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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:

Also for F-16 news unrelated with technological evolution, there's a dedicated thread:

Thanks
 
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Forest Green said:

Poland’s F-16s Cleared For Major Upgrades

Polish F-16s are already among the most advanced in NATO, but a new upgrade package will make them far more potent. Polish F-16s are already among the most advanced in NATO, but a new upgrade package will make them far more potent.
www.twz.com
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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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Lockheed Martin Announces Successful Flight of First Bulgarian F-16 Block 70 Aircraft

GREENVILLE, S.C, Oct. 24, 2024 – Lockheed Martin [NYSE: LMT] 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...
news.lockheedmartin.com
 

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EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. – An F-16 Fighting Falcon assigned to the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron flew the first Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite (IVEWS) flight here last month.

IVEWS is a self-protecting electronic warfare (EW) system on the F-16 that provides digital radar warnings and active jamming capability to detect, identify, locate, and counter potential threats.
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85th TES flies new F-16 electronic warfare suite

IVEWS takes flight at Eglin AFB.
www.dvidshub.net
 
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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View: https://x.com/SavunmaSanayiST/status/1861484026776953224
 
WatcherZero said:

Turkey drops plan to purchase F-16 Block 70 upgrade kits, opting for domestic improvement work

While Turkey will still move forward with the purchase of 40 new F-16V fighter jets from Lockheed Martin, Ankara has decided to scrap a planned acquisition of 79 Block 70 upgrade kits for its existing F-16 fleet, opting instead to contract with domestic Turkish Aerospace for the modernisations.
www.flightglobal.com

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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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.

Turkey Reduces F-16 Procurement Cost to $6-7B from $23B, TAI to Modernize Existing Jets

Ankara reduces its purchase of F-16 Block 70 jets and modernization kits after deciding to pursue domestic alternatives.
www.defensemirror.com
 
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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.
 


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