Today I’m gonna take you to see why the f-16 fighter jet operated by 25 countries.
The F-16 is a single-engine, highly maneuverable, supersonic, multi-role tactical fighter aircraft.
It is much smaller and lighter than its predecessors, but uses advanced aerodynamics and avionics
, originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. Designed
as an air superiority day fighter, it evolved into a successful all-weather multirole aircraft.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon, the first of the US Air Force multi-role fighter aircraft,
is the world’s most prolific fighter with more than 2,000 in service with the USAF and
approximately 3,000 operational F-16s are in service today in 25 countries, by some
estimates, F-16s make up an outsized 16% of the total number of jets flown by militaries
around the world, a testament to what is easily the world's most successful, combat-proven
multi-role jet fighter ever produced. The fast and agile F-16 Fighting Falcon isn't
just one of the top fighters it is also amongst the most cost-effective. While it lacks the
range and payload of the larger twin-engine F-15 Eagle, it also costs less than half – which
is why the fourth-generation F-16 has been in use since the 1970s and will likely keep
flying for many more years to come.
Innovations include a frameless bubble canopy for better visibility, a side-mounted control
stick, and a reclined seat to reduce g-force effects on the pilot. The F-16 was the world’s
first aircraft able to withstand higher g-forces than the pilots. F-16 was the first fighter
aircraft purpose-built to pull 9-g forces maneuvers and can reach a maximum speed of
over Mach 2.
The Fighting Falcon entered service in 1979. The last of 2,231 F-16 fighters for the US
Air Force was delivered in March 2005. The first two-seat F-16D version was accepted
by the US Government in January 2009.
Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC) and Lockheed Martin signed an agreement
to establish F-16 fighter jet maintenance centre in Taiwan, in December 2019.
The F-16 Block 70/72 is the newest and most advanced F-16 production configuration, combining
numerous capability and structural upgrades. The F-16 Block 70/72 variant, also known as
the Viper, will become the base F-16 model. In addition to a reduced radar cross-section,
Lockheed claims that the Viper’s estimated structural life is 50% greater than previous
F-16s. The F-16 was born out of the conundrum experienced
by the Air Force in the Vietnam War. Fast and heavy F-4 Phantom fighters had underperformed
against the North Vietnamese Air Force, due to their immature long-range missile technology
and lack of aptitude for tight maneuvering in dogfights. This led a faction known as
the Fighter Mafia to argue that Air Force had its design priorities all wrong, and that
what was really needed was a relatively cheap, lightweight airframe that maximized energy
for short-range dogfights, rather than another heavy twin-engine fighter like the F-15 Eagle
that was then under development.
Support for a light fighter eventually consolidated in the Pentagon, due to simple economics:
the Air Force liked the F-15, but realized it was too expensive to equip all of its fighter
squadrons, so it came to seek a “high-low” force mix. Eventually two prototypes faced
off in a competitive trial in 1974: the Northrop YF-17 and the General Dynamics YF-16. The
latter was unanimously found to be more responsive, while the former evolved into the Hornet fighters
now serving in the Marines and U.S. Navy. The first production F-16As went on to enter
service in 1980, joined by the two-seat F-16B variant.
The single-engine F-16 leveraged new design technologies to maximize kinematic performance.
A powerful Pratt & Whitney F100 engine with the intake slung under the fuselage could
generate an excellent thrust-to-weight ratio due to the overall lightness of the Falcon,
propelling the F-16 to twice the speed of sound at high altitude. Pronounced strakes
bulged out like the hood of a cobra from the fuselage to support the cropped delta wings,
enabling very high roll rates. A bulging bubble canopy afforded an excellent field of view
for the pilot. The latest version of the Fighting Falcon
is powered by a single-engine, either the General Electric F110-GE-129 or Pratt and
Whitney F100-PW-229, and while it is a speedy fighter it can pack a serious punch. The F-16
has nine hardpoints for weapons payloads – including one at each wingtip, three under each wing
and one centerline under the fuselage. It has carried a variety of air-to-air missiles
including the Lockheed Martin/Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder, Raytheon AMRAAM, Raytheon Sparrow,
MBDA (formerly Matra BAe Dynamics) Skyflash and ASRAAM, and the MBDA R550 Magic 2; and
in April 2004 it was the first fighter to fire the new-generation AIM-9X Sidewinder.
Air-to-surface missiles carried on the F-16 include Maverick, HARM and Shrike missiles,
manufactured by Raytheon, and anti-ship missiles include Boeing Harpoon and Kongsberg Penguin.
A twenty-millimeter Vulcan cannon in the lower fuselage served as a backup weapon.
Due to delays and cost overruns in the F-35 stealth fighter program, the U.S. Air Force
intends to continue flying its 1,200 F-16s well into the 2040s by extending the airframe’s
service life from eight to twelve thousand hours. The Fighting Falcon has proven to be
a fine and versatile combat jet—and furthermore, by one count it costs $22,000 per flight hour
to operate, compared to $42,000 for a twin-engine F-15.