Jerry Gunner reviews the last F-16 Fighting Falcon built at Air Force Plant 4 run by aerospace giant Lockheed Martin
THE LAST F-16 Fighting Falcon to be built in Texas flew away from Lockheed Martin’s facility at Air Force Plant 4, Fort Worth, on November 14. The first F-16 took to the air, albeit inadvertently, more than 43 years earlier on January 20, 1974. Former naval aviator Phil Oestricher was working as a test pilot for then F-16 manufacturer General Dynamics at the Air Force Flight Test Center at Edwards Air Force Base, California. He was performing a high-speed ground run of a prototype YF-16 in advance of the scheduled first flight on February 2, 1974, when oscillations caused the aircraft to rock from side to side. A wing-tip-mounted missile and a stabilator struck the ground, so Oestricher decided to take off; he safely landed the jet after six minutes. Had the aircraft crashed it is quite possible the rival Northrop YF-17 would have won the competition for the US Air Force’s lightweight fighter programme and the F-16 may have ended up as an insignificant footnote in aviation history.
Since that uncertain start, the F-16 has grown from the initial concept of a lightweight fighter to a jack-of-all-trades flown by many air forces around the world with around 4,600 built, so far.
Many of those jets were manufactured overseas. SABCA of Belgium produced airframes for Belgium and Denmark, while the Dutch company Fokker assembled F-16s for the Netherlands and Norway. Turkish Aircraft Industries built several hundred for Turkey and Egypt and in South Korea, Korean Aircraft Industries constructed KF-16s for the Republic of Korea Air Force, but even so, the Fort Worth line has seen thousands of Vipers, as the jet is known, built and delivered to air forces world wide. From now on, any further F-16s will be built at a new facility in South Carolina.
Continued growth
Lockheed Martin launched a new variant, the F-16V, in 2015, but has not stopped producing legacy models and it was one of those, an F-16C variant, that was the last to leave the line in Texas.
Today’s F-16 has come a long way from the original concept of a relatively inexpensive lightweight air combat fighter for the US Air Force. The latest version, the F-16V, first flew in October 2015. Weighing 2.5 tonnes more than an early F-16A, it is built around an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar monitored on a large-format 6 x 8-inch (152 x 203mm), high-resolution display with data processed via a high-volume, high-speed data bus. Operational capabilities are enhanced through incorporation of the Link 16 data link, AAQ-33 Sniper targeting pod, advanced weapons, precision GPS navigation and an auto ground collision avoidance system fitted as standard. The modern COTSbased avionics subsystem is customisable.
Winding down
There is no doubt that by any standards the F-16 has been an outstanding success, but it now faces several problems that reduce the opportunities for further sales. Perhaps the most obvious is that for wealthier nations and members of NATO, the F-16 is no longer the warplane of choice. That mantle has been assumed by Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II, which as production builds up is becoming increasingly more competitive in terms of price.
Another perhaps less obvious obstacle to further sales is that the White House has vetoed the sale of F-16s to potential customers, such as Pakistan, for political reasons. Perversely, that governmental mindset may end up helping F-16 sales, because the US government has vowed it will not sell F-35s to Middle East nations other than Israel, perhaps paving the way for more Viper sales in the region.
Lockheed Martin really pushed the F-16V at last year’s Paris Air Show, revealing the possibility of a partnership with Indian megacorporation TATA if the Asian nation selected the type for its air force. In September 2017, the US State Department approved the sale of 19 F-16Vs to Bahrain. Part of the deal included a further announcement of an agreement to upgrade Bahrain’s existing fleet of 20 Block 40 F-16s to F-16V standard at a cost of around $1 billion. Greece, a country that can’t afford the F-35 and whose nearest neighbour and rival Turkey can, wants to upgrade its 123-strong fleet of Block 30 and 40 machines to F-16V standard, too. It is this ability to update existing fleets of older Vipers to F-16V standard that could be the saviour of F-16 production. The workforce can be kept in employment rebuilding legacy fighters to the newer standard while the production line is kept going building the fewer number of new jets. That is why the move of the F-16 line to Lockheed Martin’s plant at Donaldson Center Airport, Greenville, South Carolina is happening.
New nest
At the moment, Air Force Plant 4 at Fort Worth is dominated by the enormous F-35 manufacturing complex. Alongside it is the much smaller plant for assembling Fighting Falcons, known as ‘the Fighting Falcon nest’. However, space is at a premium and the F-16 facility is due to be swallowed up by the ever-expanding F-35 factory. Lockheed Martin admitted the possibility of ending F-16 production for good in early 2016. While continuing to order long-lead components in anticipation of further orders a company spokesman had suggested that if those contracts were not forthcoming production would finish at the end of 2017. Bahrain’s order has prompted the move to its facility at Greenville where Lockheed Martin plans to build the Lockheed/Korea Aerospace Industries T-50A if that aircraft is successful in the US Air Force’s T-X trainer competition. South Korea’s first home-grown supersonic jet, the KAI T-50 Golden Eagle, owes a lot to the F-16 and KAI’s work in building the jet for the Republic. The T-50A shares the same basic shape, flight controls and wing. Several hundred have already been sold by KAI, predominately in the Asia-Pacific region, and the company has orders for more. At Greenville, Lockheed has prepared manufacturing facilities and four T-50As have been built.
The F-16V sale to Bahrain and the prospect of more orders in the future, as well as agreements to upgrade earlier fleets, suggest that Lockheed Martin could easily exceed its present prediction of ending production in 2022.
