An F-16 fighter jet in Afghanistan might be Pentagon's most decorated

Stars and Stripes ^ | Oct 30, 2015 | Dan Lamothe

[Jet Jaguar]

BAGRAM AIRFIELD, Afghanistan — While visiting this sprawling military installation north of Kabul last week, I visited the flight line of the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing. And then I stumbled into a little history.

The plane is an F-16C Fighting Falcon, commonly known in the service as a Viper. The U.S. military has at least one pair of fighters airborne over Afghanistan virtually all the time, carrying out everything from the armed over-watch and protection of ground units to airstrikes against insurgents.

[Jet Jaguar]

[Jet Jaguar]

F-16 ping.

[CivilWarBrewing]

Lovin' it! Awesome aircraft. Lightweight, nimble and relatively inexpensive. That and the F/A-18 will endure, mod after mod.

The wings (fixed wing aircraft) on that viper look more swept than the standard configuration. Is that right?

[Jet Jaguar]

I am pretty sure it is a standard Block 40.

Great aircraft.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Aircraft are nothing without the guidance of a competent pilot.

[ryan71]

Just an incredible design. I wish we’d build 1000 new models, starting tomorrow.

[smokingfrog]

F-15Cs scored 32 aerial kills of a total of 41 victories in the gulf war. Of these, all but eight were achieved with the Eagle’s beyond-visual-range weapon, the radar-guided AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile, a weapon that had been plagued by mechanical problems during the Vietnam war but performed well in the 1990s. The AIM-120A AMRAAM was not fired in anger, although more than a thousand “captive carries” of the missile were racked up during combat missions in the final days of the war. Eagle pilots made seven kills using the AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared air-to-air missile, and one pilot downed an Iraqi MiG-29 by maneuvering his adversary into the ground.

[Jet Jaguar]

Thanks!

[Squantos]

Where does the moniker Viper come from ? Always was a Falcon in my era.... I thought the Viper was the newest variant of the F16 ?

Been retired since 96 so please understand I’m just asking as to the name Viper ....a nickname maybe ??

..... thanks if ya have time.

Stay Safe JJ.

[smokingfrog]

The first F-16 pilots nicknamed it the Viper after the Battlestar Galactica fighter, but the name didn’t stick.

Read more: http://www.airspacemag.com/military-aviation/outrageous-adolescence-f-16-180949491/#fZTpoGQ65dmUpvvM.99
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[Jet Jaguar]

Squantos, The Viper moniker comes from the pilots and maintainers. We, in the F-16 community, know the name is Falcon. However, it came to pass that the jet looked like a Viper from the dual antennas that protrude just aft of the radome and forward of the intake. The name stuck. Most pilots and maintainers call it the Viper within our community. Outside of our community, we do refer to it as a Falcon. As, nobody would understand what we were talking about.

[Squantos]

Grateful ..... thanks ya’ll

Was mixed up on the name when i read this.....

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/10/26/meet-viper-newest-f-16-fighter.html

Stay Safe !!

[smokingfrog]

Cool technology for the F-16!

[tophat9000]

While the F-16 official name is Fighting Falcon....it got the unofficial nickname Viper from the fighters in old Battlestar Galactica TV show that was popular when the F-16 first when in to service

Just like the A-10 official name is Thunderbolt2 but got the nickname “Warthog” from a experimental spotted camo that one of the prototypes was trying out

[Squantos]

Thanks Top Hat ..... Thought I’d missed a meeting .....:o)

Stay Safe !

[Edison]

The SR71 was called the Blackbird and the Habu when first flown out of Kadena AFB, Okinawa.

[tophat9000]

It is funny how an unofficial nickname can overtake an official nickname

The classic is the Huey....

The UH-1 official name was “Iroquois”... Army helicopters were to have Indian tribe names....

But “Huey” came from the slang for the “UH” designation