Graham Warwick/ATLANTA
BUDGET reductions have forced the US Air Force to revise its plans to upgrade existing fighters. An almost 30% cut in the funds earmarked for modification programmes has resulted in a scaling back of the Fighter Configuration Plan (FICOP) first drawn up by the USAF in 1995.
Hardest hit is the Lockheed Martin F-16 fleet, with the cancellation of plans to upgrade some of the USAF's 650 Block 40/42 and 50/52 aircraft with integrated modular avionics, an internal targeting system, helmet-mounted cuing system (HMCS) and the AIM-9X replacement for the Sidewinder air-to-air missile. Now only 250 aircraft will receive the improved data-modem datalink.
Planned upgrades which survive include colour cockpit-displays, modular mission computer, Link 16 fighter-datalink, digital-terrain system, improved flight-controls, smart-weapons integration and the common missile-warning system (CMWS) for at least some Block 40/42 and 50/52 F-16s.
Planned stealth upgrades to the Lockheed Martin F-117 have been cancelled or cut back in favour of avionics and systems updates. Development of low-observable identification friend-or-foe and UHF antennas has been cancelled, while programmes to replace life-limited skins, recoat radar-absorbent materials and reduce wing leading-edge radar cross-section have been scaled back. Upgrades to standardise the 54-aircraft F-117 fleet will continue, along with installation of a laser-gyro inertial-navigation/ global-positioning system (INS/GPS) and integration of new smart weapons.
Scaling back of the latest FICOP means mixed news for the McDonnell Douglas F-15 fleet. Upgrades for the 117 F-15A/Bs operated by the US Air National Guard are cancelled and efforts concentrated on the active Air Force's 400-plus F-15C/Ds. Funding has been earmarked for the Hughes APG-63(V)1 radar upgrade, improved head-up display, embedded INS/GPS, fighter datalink, HMCS, CMWS and AIM-9X integration. The Air Force's 203 F-15Es will not receive the HMCS or the AIM-9X, however, but will undergo avionics upgrades, including a digital-map system, INS/GPS, fighter datalink, the CMWS and integration of new smart weapons.
An avionics update for the Fairchild A/OA-10, of which 375 remain in service, has been cancelled, but the aircraft are still scheduled to be upgraded with INS/GPS, colour multi-function display, digital-terrain system (DTS), electronic-warfare management suite (EWMS), the CMWS and an interim situational-awareness datalink.
A similar upgrade is still planned for some of the Air Force's 640 early-model F-16s, including INS/GPS, DTS, EWMS, smart-weapons integration and flight-control-computer and structural upgrades.
The FICOP, which is revised annually, is a blueprint for the allocation of funding to future USAF fighter upgrades and involves a detailed process of determining current deficiencies in each mission area, and deciding which upgrades are needed for each aircraft to overcome those deficiencies - and can be afforded within the fighter-modification funding planned to be available to 2015.
Source: Flight International
