F-16 Block 70 of Bahrain makes maiden flight

Agencies | Manama                                 

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com   

Lockheed Martin has successfully conducted the first flight of its F-16 Block 70 at its Greenville, South Carolina site, ahead of the jet’s delivery to Bahrain.

This F-16 Block 70 jet is the first of 16 jets to be delivered to Bahrain - the first Gulf country to acquire and operate the F-16. It was reported earlier that the deal also confirms the Kingdom’s withdrawal from the Eurofighter Typhoon programme.

“With a total of 16 brand new advanced F-16s and 20 upgraded Block 40 F-16 aircraft to the V configuration, the airforce lost its need to operate a new kind of aircraft,” the Daily Tribune, quoting an unnamed military official, had reported.

The flight occurred on Jan. 24 at 9:17 am ET, with Lockheed Martin test pilots Dwayne “Pro” Opella and Monessa “Siren” Balzhiser at the helm. Total flight time was approximately 50 minutes and included airworthiness checks, such as engine, flight control and fuel system checks, as well as basic aircraft handling.

“Today’s successful flight is a testament to the hard work, dedication and commitment to our customers and their missions,” said OJ Sanchez, vice president, Integrated Fighter Group, which includes the F-16 programme.

“This milestone demonstrates Lockheed Martin’s commitment to advancing this programme and getting this much-needed aircraft and its advanced 21st Century Security capabilities to the warfighter.”

Six countries have selected Block 70/72 aircraft. In addition to the current official backlog of 128 jets to-date to be built in Greenville, Jordan last year signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) for eight jets and last week signed an additional LOA for four more jets.

Lockheed Martin has received a contract to begin Jordan’s long-lead activities. Bulgaria has also signed an LOA for an additional eight jets for its fleet. Once these are finalized, the backlog will increase to 148.

“Lockheed Martin is fully committed to delivering quality platforms for our customers’ critical missions, and I am so proud of our talented team in Greenville,” said Danya Trent, F-16 Vice President and Site Lead in Greenville.

“This is the culmination of significant development, design, digital engineering, supply chain and production line advances to an already proven platform that will continue to deliver decades of service in support of customers’ national security.”

Most advanced production Vipers

The F-16 Block 70/72 are the most advanced production Vipers (as the F-16s are dubbed within the fighter pilot community).

The aircraft features the APG-83 AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) radar, a new Center Pedestal Display (CPD), the AN/APX-126 Advanced IFF (Identification Friend or Foe), Link 16 datalink, full NVIS (Night Vision Imaging System) and JHCMS II (Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System II) compatibility, a new Embedded GPS/INS (EGI), a modern commercial off-the-shelf (COTS)- based avionics subsystem, a high-volume, high-speed data bus and the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System (Auto GCAS).