The Turkish air force has received the last of 163 Lockheed Martin F-16C/Ds to have been upgraded with new avionics equipment and an expanded weapons capability.
Handed over at Turkish Aerospace Industries’ (TAI) Ankara facility on 10 April, two-seat trainer 89-0044 was one of 147 Block 40/50-variant aircraft modernised by the company. The remaining 16 were updated by the air force’s 1st Air Supply and Maintenance Centre Command as part of a deal signed by the nation’s SSM procurement body in August 2009.
Turkish Aerospace Industries
Flightglobal’s MiliCAS database records the Turkish air force as having a current active inventory of 188 F-16C fighters and 57 F-16Ds. The final example to complete the PO-III upgrade programme was assembled by TAI in 1991, and is powered by a General Electric F110-100 turbofan engine.
MiliCAS lists the Turkish air force as having the third-largest fleet of F-16s, behind the USA and Israel.
Source: FlightGlobal.com
