Lockheed Martin is confident of further export successes for the F-16C/D Fighting Falcon, says John Larson, vice-president of F-16 Programs.
The manufacturer logged its 4,300th delivery last year with an aircraft for the Royal Air Force of Oman. F-16s around the globe have now exceeded 12 million flight hours.
Such is the current tempo of operations for the US Air Force that some of its F-16s are to be cycled through the Falcon STAR structural upgrade programme to ensure structural integrity out to 8,000 flight hours. This comes on top of the Common Configuration Implementation Program (CCIP) currently standardising and upgrading the avionics and weapons capabilities of up to 650 Block 40/42/50/52 F-16D/Ds for the service.
The Turkish air force has now also signed up for CCIP and will include the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-68(V)9 radar. In addition, Hellenic Aerospace Industries has recently been selected by Lockheed Martin to perform licence upgrades of USAFE Block 40 F-16CG/DGs under CCIP.
Larson says that the CCIP work is now complete on Block 50/52 USAF aircraft and it is now 25% through the Block 40/42 fleet.
Source: Flight Daily News
