Lockheed Martin believes that the F-16 Fighting Falcon will garner substantial further orders and that there will be no gap in production between its demise and the start of F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) deliveries.
"We see prospects for 100-200 additional orders beyond what we have," Ralph Heath, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, told a dinner for journalists in Paris.
Current orders will keep the production line running until 2008 and he believes there will be an overlap of up to a couple of years between the start of JSF production and the roll-out of the last F-16.
One of the strongest current sales prospects is for Pakistan, an existing F-16 user.
Problems
Although previous Pakistani orders ran into problems, with a batch of aircraft being stored in the US for many years as punishment for Pakistan exploding a nuclear device, the 'war on terror' has seen the west Asian nation restored to favour as an important US ally against al-Qaeda and the Taliban.
Heath believes a new Pakistani order for the F-16 will be successfully concluded before the end of this year and that several other current operators will want to fill out their flight lines with more examples until the new-generation F-35 becomes available.
One possible new user is India, following a recent visit there of US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. Lockheed Martin has received a request for information on the F-16 from New Delhi and is responding, but any possible order is likely to be some time away.
Source: Flight Daily News
