Posted on 12/17/2013 9:49:42 PM PST by Jet Jaguar
Lockheed Martin has enough orders to keep its F-16 fighter jet production line humming through the third quarter of 2017. They are also pursuing additional orders and upgrades in the Middle East, South America and other markets that would keep the line running through 2020.
Around that time, the cost of Lockheed's new F-35 stealth fighter will have dropped so far that it will make more sense for potential customers to procure F-35s rather than F-16s. Last Friday Lockheed Martin marked completion of its 100th F-35 fighter.
Lockheed has produced over 4,500 F-16s since the program began in 1975, making the F-16 the best-selling fighter jet in history. The jets are flown by 26 countries, including 15 that have placed follow-on orders, Bill McHenry, Lockheed's head of F-16 business development, said in in an interview with Reuters.
The United Arab Emirates is weighing new F-16 orders and possible upgrades, but failed to announce an order at the Dubai air show as some experts had expected.
Lockheed has dramatically scaled back production of the F-16 at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas, to about one plane a month now - from a peak production rate of 30 planes a month in June 1987, said spokesman Mark Johnson. At the moment, the company is completing work on the last one of 20 F-16s it built for Egypt. That jet and seven others are being stored at the Fort Worth plant after the United States announced it would withhold most military aid due to concerns about democracy and human rights.
It is also working on 12 F-16s for Oman, several of which are in varying states of completion at the slimmed-down F-16 production line in Building 8, also known as the "Falcon's Nest," plus a total of 36 jets ordered by Iraq. One of the 145 jets being upgraded for Taiwan is also in the factory, its nose cone already open for insertion of the new Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. McHenry said Lockheed saw additional opportunities to upgrade existing F-16s to the new F-16V configuration, which includes the AESA radar, embedded global positioning, updated electronic warfare equipment and avionics systems.
He acknowledged that other companies, including Britain's BAE Systems, were trying to capture some of that upgrade work, but said Lockheed offered lower costs and greater economies of scale given the breadth of its existing work with the 26 countries that already operate the jet. The Pentagon last month approved a deal under which BAE will upgrade 134 older F-16 fighter jets for South Korea, a move that could pressure Lockheed to compete more aggressively in the hunt for upgrade deals.
F-16 Ping.
“Lockheed has produced over 4,500 F-16s since the program began in 1975, making the F-16 the best-selling fighter jet in history.”
Unless of course, you count 5000+ F-4 Phantoms, 9800 F-86s, 12,000 factory and 6000 license built MiG-15s,,,
I worked on the F16. Well I draphed schematics, we were only doing certain parts, seperated in rooms - silly really
What a great craft
vs the F-35, the 16 is faster, accelerates harder, carries a much better load, and is much cheaper.
The F-35 is a moonpig foisted upon us with the claim of stealth covering its shortfalls. Nobody wants to buy it unless we stronger them and refuse them the F-22. We can’t hardly give it away. The world beat the door down to buy 16s.
While stealth is useful in a sense, its insane to buy a 25 or 30 year airframe based upon that. Stealth planes aren’t invisible. The radar “sees” them, but is unable to recognize them for what they are at that moment. It’s a dead certainty that the F-35 stealth will be unlocked by better computing power that is still growing at an exponential rate. Then there will be a fleet of moonpigs with low loads, low performance, and their only attribute stripped.
The F-16 still rules.
“They are also pursuing additional orders and upgrades in the Middle East, South America and other markets that would keep the line running through 2020.”
I dunno. I suspect the F-16 could be available for a time well after that seeing as how the F-35 is a vastly more advanced aircraft and plenty of the world’s remaining air forces will not be looking to take on such a task and cost. I don’t see countries like Ecuador or Mexico or Thailand Malaysia jumping up to buy F-35s in 2020. There will need to be another option beside the F-35....maybe Super Hornet, maybe Rafale, maybe Typhoon, maybe Gripen, maybe future small Russian fighter, and, the JF-17.
>> 6000 license built MiG-15s
Who/where?
““Lockheed has produced over 4,500 F-16s since the program began in 1975, making the F-16 the best-selling fighter jet in history.”
I agree the numbers don’t make sense but I think they must mean in terms of dollars.
Czechoslovakia and Poland built them too. And those three the F-4, Mig-15 and F-86 were just off the top of my head. I’m kind of surprised that the writer made that claim that 4500 or so it the best selling jet fighter of all time.
Maybe, or maybe since it was designed, etc. Because in raw numbers that’s inaccurate.
In dollars it would make sense because that was an enormous seller in the 80s and 90s with tons of upgrades.
That's quite a few years into the future. How can they say with any reasonable certainty what their costs will be?
I hope somebody did the math.
Okay, that makes sense.
Do you happen to know the model# of the Red Bull Mig? Saw it at an air show — very nice, though, the F22 ultimately stole our respect and allegiance.
“vs the F-35, the 16 is faster, accelerates harder, carries a much better load, and is much cheaper.
The F-35 is a moonpig foisted upon us with the claim of stealth covering its shortfalls. Nobody wants to buy it unless we stronger them and refuse them the F-22. We can’t hardly give it away. The world beat the door down to buy 16s.
While stealth is useful in a sense, its insane to buy a 25 or 30 year airframe based upon that. Stealth planes aren’t invisible. The radar “sees” them, but is unable to recognize them for what they are at that moment. It’s a dead certainty that the F-35 stealth will be unlocked by better computing power that is still growing at an exponential rate. “
Lighten up, Francis.
The F-35 is just fine. It will be very competently defending our airspaces for the next 40 years or so. It will be the tip of the spear for our offensive ops for the next 40 or so years. It has equipment that no one, not even the F-22, has. Remember that the F-22 was designed in the mid-1980s and has computing systems from the early 1990s. The F-35 is light years ahead of it in both stealth and on-board systems. Living around Fort Worth and having seen it fly, it’s a pretty physically impressive airplane. Hell of a donk. Roughly the size of a legacy Hornet with internal capacity of an F-15. They crammed a lot into that airplane and IT IS the future of U.S. manned air power no matter how much internet posters moan and cry about it.
VIMANA
Baaaaaaaaaaaabay
But if you recall in that Die Hard movie, Bruce Willis was able to bring down an F-35 single-handedly, and he didn’t even have a gun.
F-35 is an overpriced POS plain and simple. Only reason it’s moving along is by spreading the wealth for parts throughout the US to get congressional support.
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