On June 16, 2022, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of Jordan and the Commander of the Jordanian Armed Forces, Major General Youssef Al-Khnaiti and the Commander of the Jordanian Air Force, Brigadier General Mohammad Hiyasat, signed an intergovernmental agreement with representatives of the US government and Lockheed Martin Corporation (in the form of an exchange of letters of Offer and Acceptance - LOA) on the supply of Jordan through the American programs of intergovernmental foreign military sales Foreign Military Sales (FMS) of the first eight Lockheed Martin F-16V Block 70 fighters of new production.
Image of Lockheed Martin F-16D Block 70 Fighter Jet for Jordan (c) Lockheed Martin
Details of the agreement are not disclosed. Jordan thus became the sixth customer of the newly built F-16V fighter jets, after Bahrain, Morocco, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Taiwan. It should be noted that, according to recent reports, the actual deliveries of the new-built F-16V from the production line of the Lockheed Martin Corporation in Grenville will begin only in 2024.
Recall that on February 3, 2022, the US Department of Defense Agency for Military Cooperation (Defense Security Cooperation Agency - DSCA) sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned upcoming sale to Jordan through the American FMS program of 16 Lockheed Martin F-16V Block 70 fighters of new construction, including 12 single-seat F-16C Block 70 and four two-seat F-16D Block 70. The total cost of the proposed delivery was estimated at $4.21 billion, including training and technical support packages, and some air-to-surface guided weapons. According to the notification, the delivery package was to include 21 sets of on-board AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR) with AFAR (including five spare ones), six AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pods (ATP), 100 sets of GBU-31 guided aerial bombs 2000 lb JDAM, 102 sets of 500 lb GBU-54 Laser JDAM guided aerial bombs, 100 sets of 2000 lb GBU-10 Paveway II guided aerial bombs, 100 sets of 500 lb EGBU-49 Enhanced Paveway II (EP II) guided aerial bombs.
From 1997 to 2017, the Jordanian Air Force received a total of 79 F-16A/B aircraft in service, of which 33 were delivered from the presence of the US Air Force, and 46 from the presence of the Belgian and Dutch Air Forces. In 2014, Jordan sold 13 of the F-16A/B fighters previously received from the United States to Pakistan. Currently, the Jordanian Air Force consists of three squadrons (1st, 2nd and 6th) with a maximum of 59 F-16A/B fighters, previously upgraded according to the MLU variant. It is reported that new F-16V Block 70 fighters are planned for the rearmament of the 6th Squadron.