On January 26, 2024, the US Department of Defense Agency for Military Cooperation (DSCA) sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned upcoming sale of 40 Lockheed Martin F-16V Block 70 (Viper) fighter jets, including 32 single-seat ones, to Turkey through the American program of intergovernmental foreign military sales Foreign Military Sales (FMS) F-16C Block 70 and eight two-seat F-16D Block 70, as well as 79 kits for upgrading the Turkish Air Force's available F-16 fighters to the F-16V Block 70 level. This sale is approved by the U.S. Department of State. The total value of the proposed sale is estimated at $23 billion, including weapons, training and technical support packages, and modernization work.
Lockheed Martin F-16C Advanced Block 50+ fighter jet (US and Turkish Air Force number 07-1009) Turkish Air Force, 2021 (c) Turkish Ministry of National Defense
According to the notification, Turkey's supply will include 16 AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Advanced Targeting Pod (ATP) hanging target designation containers, 952 AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles of medium and long range, 401 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder guided missiles of the air-to-air class. range, 96 AGM-88B HARM anti-radar missiles, 96 AGM-88E AARGM anti-radar missiles, 2,298 guided aerial bombs (864 GBU-39/B SDB-1, 850 GBU-31 JDAM, 200 GBU-31v.3 JDAM and 384 GBU-32 JDAM), and other assets and equipment.
This notification came from the American government immediately after Turkey, after long political wrangling, ratified Sweden's accession to NATO.
Recall that on September 30, 2021, the Turkish government sent an official request to the United States for the acquisition of 40 Lockheed Martin F-16C/D (F-16V) Block 70 Viper fighters of a new construction through the American FMS program, as well as 80 upgrade kits for upgrading Turkish Air Force fighters to this Block 70 variant. The total estimated cost of a possible agreement was then estimated at $ 6 billion (excluding the cost of weapons, and, apparently, modernization work). However, due to the increased political differences between the United States and Turkey, the American government delayed approval of this request.
The acquisition of F-16V Block 70 fighters for the Turkish Air Force itself should become a kind of compensation after the United States refused to supply Turkey with Lockheed Martin F-35A Lightning II fifth-generation fighters already contracted by the Turkish side and the official exclusion of Turkey from the F-35 (JSF) aircraft program by the Americans in April 2021. As you know, these measures by the American side became part of the sanctions imposed by the United States for Turkey's purchase of Russian S-400 anti-aircraft missile systems.
From 1987 to 2012, the Turkish Air Force received 278 F-16C/D Fighting Falcon fighters of various modifications (43 Block 30, 117 Block 40, 88 Block 50 and 30 Advanced Block 50+) as part of four programs under the Peace Onyx cipher along the FMS line, with the assembly of most of these aircraft by the Turkish aircraft manufacturing association Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) in Akinci near Ankara. Since 2012, 210 of these aircraft (37 Block 30, 101 Block 40 and 72 Block 50) have been upgraded in Turkey jointly with Lockheed Martin Corporation under the Common Configuration Implementation Program (CCIP) with approximate upgrade to the level of analogues of the Advanced Block 50+ version. Currently, 243 F-16C/D aircraft (157 F-16C and 86 F-16D) remain in the Turkish Air Force.
The planned purchase of 40 new F-16C/D (F-16V) Block 70 fighters was to replace 48 McDonnell Douglas F-4E Phantom II fighters still in operation in the Turkish Air Force.
The F-16V Block 70/72 modification is now the most advanced version of the F-16 fighter family and is equipped with a new Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) with AFAR. To date, Taiwan (66 aircraft), Morocco (24 aircraft), Bahrain (16 aircraft), Slovakia (14 aircraft), Bulgaria (16 aircraft) and Jordan (12 aircraft) have ordered the newly built F-16V. Serial production of the F-16V was started in 2023 at the Lockheed Martin facility in Greenville, South Carolina, where the American corporation is transferring production of the F-16 from the plant in Fort Worth, Texas.
In addition, to date, Taiwan, Greece, Morocco and Bahrain have concluded agreements to upgrade their available fighters to the F-16V Block 70/72 variant (141 F-16A/B Block 20 aircraft of the Taiwan Air Force, 84 F-16C/D Block 52+ and Advanced Block 52+ of the Greek Air Force, 23 F-16C/D Block 52+ Moroccan Air Force and 19 F-16C/D Block 40 Bahrain Air Force). Taiwan became the first actual operator of the F-16V modification - the first Taiwanese F-16A fighter to complete the upgrade to the F-16V Block 70 level began flight tests in August 2018, and on October 19, 2018, it was formally transferred to the Taiwanese Air Force. The delivery of upgraded Greek Air Force aircraft has been underway since September 2022,
