The US State Department approves the sale of F-16 Block 70 aircraft to Jordan

The US State Department has approved a potential sale of F-16 fighters and related equipment to Jordan. The contract value is estimated to cost around $4.21bn. Following the approval, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) has notified the US Congress.

The package consist of 12 F-16 C Block 70 and 4 F-16D Block 70, the most modern Block available. It includes an AN/APG-83 AESA radar and a F-100-PW229EEP improved engine. The entire logistic and weapons package can be found below.

Press release (dsca.mil)

Jordan has operated F-16s for more than 2 decades. The first aircraft were delivered in the mid 1990s after signing a peace agreement with Israel. Since then the fleet has been expanded by buying F-16s from US, Belgium and Netherlands. Turkey, which produces the F-16 under license, provided support with the maintenance and upgrades.

References:

- https://www.dsca.mil/

Israeli F-16 shot down over Syria (10-2-2018)

Last night an Israeli F-16 was shot down when carrying out a mission over Syria. The aircraft was subjected to" massive AAA fire" and hit. Both pilots ejected and are safe, one of them suffered light injuries while the other suffered heavy injuries.

F-16 remains (Jack Guez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images).

 S-200 SAM remains.

The sequence so far is as follow. An Iranian UAV took off from Palmyra and penetrated Israeli airspace to collect information. The Israel Air Defence had detected the incoming UAV and sent an Apache helicopter to shoot it down, which it did. Following prototcol an attackwas launched against the location where the UAV had taken off, and this is when the F-16 was hit. Later several attacks were carried out against Syrian and Iranian targets.

References:

- https://www.nytimes.com/
- http://www.iaf.org.il/4470-49981-en/IAF.aspx

Israel puts 40 F-16/B for sale

The Israeli government is going to sale 40 F-16A/B which were recently retired. At the moment there are no details about the selected aircraft. Israel acquired a total of 125 F-16A/B; 75 were new and 50 from US stocks. The latter were transferred in the 90s after the Gulf War in exchange for Israel’s restraint. Most of them had ¼ of its flying hours’ left. 

Israel considered replacing these aircraft in the 1990s, but it was found to expensive. The aircraft were modernised to the ACE variant (Avionics Capabilities Enhacement). According to the designers, it provided 80% of the Block 40 capabilities at 1/8 of the cost.

The main modification was the integration of a IAI/Elta EL/M-2032 radar and a Lahav datalink. The cockpit received an El-Op HUD and Dash helmet. An Elisra SPS-1000 RWR and ASPS EW kit were installed. The aircraft could also use a Elta EI/L-8222 pod.

Some countries will definitely be interested (Argentina, Croatia…). The type is in widespread service, which eases the maintenance. The life can be extended up to 8,000 hours, even more. 

References:

- http://defense-watch.com/2016/12/28/israel-selling-40-freshly-retired-f-16ab-jets/

- http://portierramaryaire.com/foro/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1420&start=180

- Air War on the Edge: A History of the Israel Air Force and it's Aircraft Since 1947, by B. Norton Midland Publishing (2004)