F-16 around the world

Rappel du premier message :

l'AS a des AIM-120C

on y voit le notre   

Citation :

SINGAPORE: Lockheed offers fixed-price F-16 upgrade

Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics chief has swatted down speculation that possible funding concerns related to US F-16 upgrades will compromise its international improvement offerings for the popular type.

Speaking at the Singapore air show on 11 February, president of Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Orlando Carvalho said that if the Combat Avionics Programmed Extension Suite (CAPES) effort becomes a casualty of the US government’s 2015 budget request, it will not hurt his company’s international F-16 upgrade offering.

Recent unsourced media reports suggesting that CAPES funding will be delayed prompted widespread speculation that this would drive up the cost of Lockheed’s F-16 modernisation proposals for international customers.

Carvalho reveals that Lockheed has reached a deal with Northrop Grumman to provide its Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) at a fixed rate for international customers.

A major element in CAPES and other F-16 upgrades is the addition of an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar. The radar that Lockheed selected for the US Air Force’s CAPES programme is Northrop’s SABR. The other option is the Raytheon Advanced Combat Radar.

Regionally, BAE Systems and Raytheon won a competition to upgrade South Korea’s F-16s, while Lockheed and SABR were tapped to upgrade Taiwan’s, which was closely tied to the US decision.

Carvalho says that CAPES should be viewed as having two parts: development, which included the integration of an AESA radar and other capabilities; and a “call to production aspect” that involves procuring equipment and upgrading aircraft.

“Think of it as two parts,” he says. “The [US] air force is re-examining the execution of the production part. The development part continues, and there is no change in direction. That work, and the foundation that work provides for international customers, has not changed. The programme in Taiwan is pressing ahead.”

A preliminary design review for the upgrade has been completed, and the critical design review will be completed in “a few months”, he says. “If the USAF makes the decision to truncate the production part of CAPES, it does not affect anything we’re offering inter- nationally. Even if the quantity of radars changes, the price remains the same.”

As for the avionics upgrade, Carvalho notes that every country is “doing something unique, so [the status of CAPES] is really not an issue.”

Given the thousands of F-16s in service globally, the potential upgrade market is enormous.

http://www.flightglobal.com

Citation :

Exelis to provide special-purpose radio frequency (RF) technology for fighter aircraft

CLIFTON, N.J., May 12, 2014 - Exelis (NYSE: XLS) recently received a follow-on contract valued at $8.4 million from Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company, Fort Worth, Texas, to supply Continuous Wave Illuminator (CWI) subsystems for F-16 Fighting Falcon aircraft.

The Exelis CWI subsystem is a special-purpose transmitter that works with the F-16’s fire control radar and mission computer to provide guidance for semi-active missiles. Using radio frequency energy, the system illuminates airborne targets to increase accuracy and ensure the missile finds its intended target.

“Our CWI subsystem provides a real edge, using the power of the electromagnetic spectrum to enable the success and safety of our aviators,” said Joe Rambala, vice president and general manager of the Exelis integrated electronic warfare systems business. “Utilizing its smaller size and lighter weight, the technology performs critical targeting tasks, allowing aviators to devote their attention to the larger mission.”

The Exelis CWI subsystem uses the latest technology for its high-voltage power supply, digital control, microwave signal generation and power amplifier circuits; it is substantially smaller and lighter than similar legacy subsystems used on older F-16s and other fighter aircraft.

Exelis in Clifton, New Jersey, will perform the manufacturing work under this contract, with deliveries to be completed in 2017. The initial contract award, for $9.4 million, was received in September 2012.

The CWI system is one of several Exelis protection suites developed to enable domestic and international customers to perform their critical missions. Leveraging its decades of innovation and experience in the electromagnetic spectrum, Exelis has identified electronic warfare as one of the company’s four strategic growth platforms.

http://www.exelisinc.com

Citation :

BAE Systems challenges Lockheed on F-16 upgrades

By STEVE KASKOVICH


FORT WORTH, Texas -- Inside a hangar at Alliance Airport, two F-16s await a major overhaul.

The fighter jets, which arrived from South Korea last month, will be the first to be worked over by engineers at BAE Systems, a British company that won a $1.3 billion contract to install new avionics and other systems on that country's fleet of about 130 F-16s.

To handle the work, BAE has set up shop at Alliance in space formerly occupied by Bell Helicopter. It has hired 175 workers, plans to expand its workforce to 300 by the end of the year and broke ground on a 40,000-square-foot expansion that will add a systems integration lab.

The operation represents another chapter in the long life of the legendary fighter jet that's celebrating the 40th anniversary of its first flight - and a new competitor for its maker, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics in west Fort Worth.

More than 4,500 F-16s have been produced by Lockheed and its predecessor in Fort Worth, General Dynamics, with about half going to foreign nations. By some estimates, more than 1,000 of the 3,000-plus F-16s still in operation could become candidates for upgraded electronic systems in an era when defense funds to buy new jets are tight.

With Lockheed Martin focused on meeting development targets on its next-generation F-35 fighter jet program, which has been plagued by technical delays and higher costs, BAE believes it can pick up business by focusing on F-16 upgrades, said John Bean, a former Lockheed executive who is now vice president and general manager of global fighter programs for BAE Systems. (It also has about 200 employees in west Fort Worth working with Lockheed on electronic warfare and other systems for the F-35.)

"Customers were clamoring for competition," Bean said.

While the F-35 was designed as a successor to the F-16, many nations are reassessing how many F-35s they want to buy because of the higher costs. As one alternative, some are upgrading their F-16s and flying them longer.

Greece, which has 140 F-16s, is expected to open up bidding for an upgrade contract this year, Bean said. Other countries considering upgrades include Singapore, Turkey, Egypt and Bahrain.

"As many as 1,000 to 1,200 F-16s will need to fly for 25 years or more," he said.

Lockheed has handled F-16 upgrades for years, including midlife enhancements for the Air Force, and believes that its knowledge of the aircraft is a major advantage over BAE or any other rival, said George Standridge, vice president of business development for Lockheed Martin Aeronautics. Two years ago, it won a contract with Taiwan to upgrade the electronics on 145 F-16s for $1.85 billion.

"We are the design and development authority on this airplane," Standridge said, emphasizing that it has unique know-how to take the plane to its maximum capability.

Despite budget concerns around the globe, Lockheed doesn't believe that F-16 upgrades will eat into potential sales of its F-35, which comes with stealth capabilities and other features that even upgraded F-16s won't have.

"There is nothing you can do to a fourth-generation airplane that will take it to the capabilities of a next-generation plane like the F-22 or the F-35," Standridge said. "Even as the F-35 enters into service, we will have F-16s out there in numbers for a long period of time."

Indeed, many nations with F-16s have already placed orders for F-35s, which sell for about $100 million each. Nine countries, including South Korea, have ordered about 700 F-35s.

And Lockheed could drum up more sales next month, when the plane is scheduled to fly overseas for the first time at the Farnborough International Airshow in England. It expects the fighter's cost to drop as production increases.

At Alliance, BAE engineers will write software and integrate the avionics and other systems to provide all new controls for the F-16s. New systems will include central mission computers, radar, communication, sensors, navigation and weapons targeting. The cockpits will receive high-definition displays and a new helmet system that displays information for the pilot on its visor, Bean said.

The equipment will first be installed in the two planes at Alliance, with ground testing planned for next year and flight testing for 2016. Once the systems have been developed, the upgrades will be installed on the rest of the fleet in South Korea.

The Fighting Falcon is no stranger to Bean, 58, who spent 29 years at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, including a stint as vice president and general manager of F-16 programs. He went to Bell Helicopter in 2004, where he served as executive vice president and chief operating officer before leaving in 2009.

In 2012, after BAE won the contract with South Korea, officials said they planned to handle design and testing for the upgrades in San Antonio and at two other sites. But after Bean was hired in February 2013, BAE decided to centralize the work in Fort Worth "to improve productivity and help reduce program costs," spokesman Neil Frantz said.

The company operates inside half the 200,000-square-foot facility near the control tower at Alliance Airport. It will take over the rest of the building next spring when Bell moves to a flight-training academy being built at its headquarters as part of a $235 million modernization program at its east Fort Worth campus.

For now, BAE Systems is focused solely on upgrades to the F-16. With more than two dozen countries flying the fighter jet, Bean hopes to secure enough work for the employees being hired in Fort Worth to sustain a long-term business.

"We don't want to just upgrade the aircraft," Bean said. "We want to be a partner that goes to the end of life on an aircraft."

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/2014/06/17/6489200/bae-systems-challenges-lockheed.html#storylink=cpy

http://www.sacbee.com

bonne remarque du gamin 2:40 , c'est comme dans Transformers !

Citation :

Lockheed prepares to usher F-16 through 12,000h service life


The US Air Force has all but scrapped a plan to install advanced radars on its Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters, but Lockheed is pressing forward with plans to outfit other nations’ aircraft with the capability in hopes the US will eventually purchase the capability.

USAF officials scrapped a comprehensive upgrade effort for F-16 Block 40 and 50 aircraft called the combat avionics programmed extension suite (CAPES) in its current fiscal year budget but preserved money over five years to replace the aircraft mission and display computers.

“Those are the foundational systems that need to be installed to support an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar upgrade in the future,” Rod McLean, vice president of Lockheed’s F-16/F-22 integrated fighter group, tells Flightglobal.

CAPES was intended to be a joint programme between the USAF and Taiwan, which is now performing the upgrades unilaterally. The USAF has plans to keep the F-16 technologically relevant until the Lockheed F-35 came online beginning in 2016. Given a choice, air force officials chose to follow an incremental upgrade path rather than go all in on an AESA upgrade for the F-16 in the near term, McLean says.

“Even though the US Air Force pulled their involvement, there still is a baseline capability that we will install in the Tawain air force F-16s that will be applications to the US Air Force in the future,” he says.

Taiwan will become the launch customer for the F-16V configuration, which involves mission computer upgrades, structural reinforcements and the integration of an AESA radar, in this case the Northrop Grumman APG-83 scalable agile-beam radar (SABR).

“We are starting to see a number of customers beginning to line up behind that configuration,” McLean says. “We should hear some news by the end of the year for additional upgrade contracts to V configuration.”

The F-16 needs more than an avionics upgrade to fly for much longer than their originally intended 8,000h service life. Many nations that fly the aircraft, including the USAF, are considering pushing them to at least 10,000h if not 12,000h.

“It’s quite realisable that we can get up to 12,000hr on the airplanes,” McLean says. “The point is, they will continue to be the backbone of the US Air Force fleet for a number of years until the F-35 comes online. Already, they are the backbone of many international coalition partners’ fleets as they are heavily engaged in the fights around the globe.”

Lockheed is putting an F-16 through stress and fatigue testing in order to design a service life extension retrofit kit that would allow Block 40 and 50s to fly as many as 12,000h. That test programme should be complete in 2015.

The process involves putting the airframe through the equivalent stress of three 8,000h service lives. The test vehicle has already undergone 16,000h of tests, he says.

“As the test progressed, we saw some occurrences and made some repairs,” McLean says. “We updated our models to reflect that and then identify a kit, a set of parts and components or structure members that we’ll need to go off and procure and install on the airplane to take it to 10,000 or 12,000 hours.”

Initial assessments indicate “nothing significant” like wholesale bulkhead or wing replacement is needed to extend an F-16s service life, McLean says. Bulkhead repairs will be required, as was the case with a portion of the USAF’s two-seated F-16 fleet. A crack was found in the canopy sill longeron of several of those aircraft until Lockheed devised and implemented a permanent repair for those aircraft.

Lockheed is still building about 1 new F-16s per month at its Fort Worth, Texas, manufacturing facility on a line with orders that will sustain it through 2017, McLean says. He hopes to have orders for another new-build customer ‑ either a Middle East or South American nation – before the end of the year, the deadline to avoid costly production gaps.

http://www.flightglobal.com

Citation :

The test vehicle has already undergone 16,000h of tests, he says.

donc ca a doublé sa vie sans gros endommagement..je me rappel du debut du test de stress on en a parlé ici

Citation :

4.500 mètres d'altitude en 45 secondes
Moins d'une minute pour monter à 4.500 mètres d'altitude. C'est l'exploit auquel parvient ce pilote turc aux commandes de son F-16 Fighting Falcon. Renversant.




Dans une vidéo publiée sur Youtube le 14 juillet, un pilote turc nous donne un aperçu de ce que son avion F-16 Fighting Falcon a dans le ventre. ll lui faut moins d'une minute - 45  secondes - pour faire monter la bête à 4.500 mètres d'altitude.
L'avion n'a en effet besoin que de 20 secondes pour accumuler la vitesse suffisante pour réaliser l'exploit. Il ne lui faut pas beaucoup plus de temps - à peine 25 secondes - pour atteindre les 4 kilomètres d'altitude. Vertigineux.

salut les gars
une question a propos du deal US-Iran en 76 avec a la clé 160 F-16 . Est ce que l’iran en a acquis qlq-uns ( 3 cannibalisés a présent d’après des sites)juste avant l'annulation ou rien ? Seulement voila,d'autres disent qu'une partie est allée vers israel et l'autre vers usaf et usn ,ce que j'ai adopte depuis que je connais l’existence de ce deal  car bien entendu il y a des preuves mais juste pour être sur que je n'ai pas manque un petit détail.
                                                 Merci

Citation :

F-16V Takes Flight

The October 16 flight marks the first time an F-16 has flown with Northrop Grumman’s advanced APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), which will deliver a quantum leap in capability for the venerable F-16.

The F-16V “Viper” advanced avionics configuration also includes a new cockpit Center Pedestal Display, a modernized mission computer, a high-capacity Ethernet data bus, and several other missions systems enhancements that collectively add significant combat capabilities to address the dynamic threat environments emerging in the coming decades.

“This flight marks a historic milestone in the evolution of the F-16,” said Rod McLean, vice president and general manager of Lockheed Martin’s F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group. “The new F-16V configuration includes numerous enhancements designed to keep the F-16 at the forefront of international security, strengthening its position as the world’s foremost combat-proven 4th Generation fighter aircraft.”

The F-16V, an option for both new production F-16s and F-16 upgrades, is the next generation configuration that leverages a common worldwide sustainment infrastructure and provides significant capability improvements to the world’s most affordable, combat-proven multi-role fighter.

Northrop Grumman’s APG-83 SABR AESA fire control radar provides 5th Generation air-to-air and air-to-ground radar capability. Northrop Grumman also provides AESA radars for the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning II.

http://www.f-16.net/f-16-news-article4987.html

Anassfra93 a écrit:

salut les gars
une question a propos du deal US-Iran en 76 avec a la clé 160 F-16 . Est ce que l’iran en a acquis qlq-uns ( 3 cannibalisés a présent d’après des sites)juste avant l'annulation ou rien ? Seulement voila,d'autres disent qu'une partie est allée vers israel et l'autre vers usaf et usn ,ce que j'ai adopte depuis que je connais l’existence de ce deal  car bien entendu il y a des preuves mais juste pour être sur que je n'ai pas manque un petit détail.
                                                 Merci

non aucun,tous devenus kosher apres

Citation :

America's Lethal F-16 Fighter Jet Could Fly for 92 Years (In Theory)

Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the iconic F-16 jet fighter, just completed a two-year test that simulated a staggering 92 years of normal flying for one of the single-engine planes.

That’s a long time. And amazingly, the F-16 — a 1990s-vintage Block 50 version — held up just fine. “The airframe was then subjected to several maximum-load conditions to demonstrate that the airframe still had sufficient strength to operate within its full operational flight envelope,” Lockheed noted in a press release.

The point of the test was to provide data for Lockheed’s coming effort to rebuild 300 or so U.S. Air Force F-16s — Block 50s and earlier Block 40s — so they can keep flying at least into the 2030s. The Air Force is struggling to maintain its roughly 1,900-strong fleet of F-15s, F-16s, F-22 and A-10s while also buying new F-35s to replace the oldest F-16s, for starters.

At some point in the 2030s, according to Air Force plans, the fighter fleet will consist of just 180 or so F-22s and slightly more than 1,760 F-35s. It’s getting from here to there that’s tricky.

That’s because the F-35s are coming in dribs and drabs. In 2010, the Air Force wanted to buy 80 per year starting in 2015, but owing to deep budget cuts and the stealth fighter’s high price — currently around $100 million per copy — today the plan is to buy 80 per year starting in 2021.

So the newest of the Air Force’s 1,000 F-16s must stick around longer than anyone had expected. As built, Block 40 and 50 F-16s have an 8,000 flight-hour fatigue life. At normal usage of around 300 hours per year, that amounts to 24 years, which would compel the F-16s to retire … well, now.

So the Air Force is bumping these F-16s up to at least 12,000 hours. Hence the fatigue testing — and the surprising conclusion that, in theory, an F-16 could last as long as 92 years. “The successful completion of this phase of full-scale durability testing demonstrates that this aircraft was built to last,” Susan Ouzts, vice president of Lockheed’s F-16 program, said in the press release.

To be clear, there’s basically no chance an F-16 will need to remain in service nearly 100 years. Although, to be fair, the Air Force’s 1960s-vintage KC-135 tankers and B-52 bombers could be 80 years old by the time they retire.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-buzz/americas-lethal-f-16-fighter-jet-could-fly-92-years-theory-14290

92 ans!!!!
Il n'est bien né ce zinc. De loin la meilleure mule de l'usaf. Le F35 aura disparu qu'iqu'il volera encore

Citation :

19/03/2016

La fin de la production du F-16 !




L’avionneur Lockheed-Martin se retrouve face à la perspective prochaine, de devoir fermer la chaine de production du F-16. A ce jour, plus de 4'500 exemplaires du « Fighting Falcon » ont été produit dans 140 configurations.

La chaine de montage du F-16 de Fort Worth au Texas produit actuellement les derniers exemplaires du F-16 destinés à l’Irak. Les dernières livraisons sont prévues pour la fin de l’année 2017. L’avionneur américain espère pouvoir compter sur une nouvelle commande en provenance du Pakistan, d’ici cette année pour maintenir encore un peu la ligne de production. Deux autres commandes en provenance du Moyen-Orient et d’Asie du Sud-Est pourraient éventuellement permettre de prolonger la fabrication du F-16 jusqu’en 2020.

Au pic de la production en 1987, sous la direction de General-Dynamics, qui a vendu son activité de fabrication d'aéronefs à Lockheed en 1993, l’usine de Fort Worth produisait un avion par jour. L'an dernier, Lockheed-Martin a livré seulement 11 avions.

L’option Viper :

La dernière version du F-16, le standard « Viper » n’a pas encore trouvé de client pour la production d’avions neufs. Cette variante n’est pour l’instant commandée que pour des modernisations de flottes déjà existantes. Les responsables de Lockheed-Martin sont conscients que certains clients ne pourront tout simplement pas se permettre l’achat du F-35 ou n’ont pas besoin de ses capacités avancées de combat furtifs, ce qui laisse quelques possibilités de ventes.

Photo : F-16 Block60 des EAU @Lockheed-Martin

http://psk.blog.24heures.ch/archive/2016/03/19/la-fin-de-la-production-du-f-16-861056.html

si nous voudrons acheter un nouveau lot de F-16 " neuf ", c'est maintenant ou jamais

silent eagle a écrit:

si nous voudrons acheter un nouveau lot de F-16 " neuf ", c'est maintenant ou jamais

je crois que à bref il y aura un comande d'un lot (on a perdu un f16 au Yemen...les saud doivent payer maintenant)
j'éspère dans la version Viper

Citation :

17/07/2016

Le F-16 n’a pas dit son dernier mot !




La chaine de montage du célèbre chasseur F-16 n’a plus que 15 appareils neufs à produire pour l’instant. Cependant, l’avionneur Lockheed-Martin planifie une seconde vie pour le « Fighting Flacon ».

A Fort Worth au Texas, les installations de production de Lockheed-Martin fonctionnent essentiellement sur le programme du F-35 « Joint Strike Fighter ». Mais l’avionneur le sait, l’ensemble des clients du F-16 ne pourront pas se payer le F-35. Par ailleurs, certains utilisateurs du nouvel avion vont continuer à maintenir tant que possible le F-16 en service, afin de garantir une dotation suffisante en terme d’avions de combat.

Une nouvelle version du F-16 :

Alors, chez Lockheed-Martin on prépare une évolution de la dernière version disponible du F-16 « Viper ». Ce futur standard devra incorporer des technologies en provenance du F-22 et F-35. Ce nouveau programme de mise à niveau les F-16 semble être la prochaine étape naturelle pour les clients existants et émergents du F-16. Mais ce programme ouvre la voie également en vue d’en séduire de nouveaux et de relancer la fabrication du célèbre avion produit à ce jour à plus de 4'500 exemplaires.

L’arrivée du standard « Viper » permet le remplacement de l’actuel radar à antenne mécanique par le Northrop Grumman APG-83 « Radar Scalable Agile Beam » de type AESA couplé à un nouvel ordinateur de mission et une architecture dotée de la fusion de données. Cette modernisation doit permettre de mieux préparer et interagir avec les appareils de 5e génération ou de génération 4++.

A l’avenir, Lockheed-Martin veut ajouter un réseau de données à haut débit et un nouveau système informatique pour permettre plus de circulation de l'information dans les nouveaux écrans du jet. Une nouvelle version ainsi configurée du F-16, lui permettra de travailler de concert avec les F-22 et F-35 en réseaux. Mais ces nouvelles applications permettront également à l’avion d’emporter de nouvelles armes plus sophistiquées.

Pour l’avionneur, trois clients ont commandé plus de 300 F-16 modifiés à la nouvelle norme « Viper ». Il s’agit de Taïwan, la Corée du Sud et Singapour. D’autres utilisateurs pourraient être tentés à l’avenir de moderniser le F-16.

Lockheed-Martin espère donc continuer à placer le standard « Viper » à d’autres utilisateurs et du même coup préparer le lancement d’une version encore plus puissante, telle que décrite ici. L’occasion de venir sur de nouveaux marchés en Asie, Amérique Latine et en Europe. En effet, l’avionneur américain désire pouvoir offrir le futur standard « Viper amélioré » à des pays ne pouvant s’offrir pour diverses raisons le F-35 et qui pourraient être intéressés par un monomoteur performant.


Photos : F-16 Viper @ Lockheed-Martin

http://psk.blog.24heures.ch/archive/2016/07/17/le-f-16-n-a-pas-dit-son-dernier-mot-861786.html