Forum: F-16 Spotting & Photography

Hi,

Here are some pictures of the chilean F16 in their new home town (Iquique) at Los Condores AB.

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Great shots!
Beautiful country !
FACh people: i wish you all the best with operating the Viper.

Beautiful pictures of a beautiful plane Smile

I remember that country well, I was there in 1988 showing off our F-16s from Luke (I was on the Demo Team then).

I was winded and dined by many a government persons back then, they loved the aircraft and we did make moves to sell them this aircraft. 18 years later, there you go....very cool too.

I hope they enjoy the ride as much as we did going there.

Loved it there........

Hi,
could somebody tell me if the chilean Pumas can carry conformal fuel tanks, ore have these to be factory build in?

Thank to all for your wishes ... It was a long time to wait for this magnificent plane ... Is a pleasure to see our AF became a more sofisticated force ... maybe in the short run we can see them working in UN peacekeaping operations Cool

Bye

Nice pics Feña. Love the camo pattern on your advanced Vipers.

Yeap, I wasn`t so sure about the pattern at the begining, but It seems to be a very efective scheme after all ...

Bye

Jane´s Defence Weekly número 10 Vol 43

South American Air Forces
Jim Dorschner JDW Special Correspondent

Washington, DC
Additional reporting JDW Correspondents: José Higuera Santiago, Pedro Paulo Rezende Brasília, Jeremy McDermott Bogotá.

Four countries in South America are leading the region on air force modernisation after years of stagnation. Jim Dorschner reports

* A modest increase in air force investment is expected in South America over the next four years

* Major procurement programmes in Latin America are often constrained by funding and US restrictions

After a decade of relative inactivity, new trends in air force modernisation in South America are emerging that will significantly alter the regional military balance.

The last major modern aircraft procurement was in the mid-1990s during the Peru-Ecuador crisis when Peru stocked up on a number of Russian aircraft, including MiG-29 fighters, Su-22 and Su-25 ground attack aircraft and French Mirage 2000 fighters.

The serious financial crisis that subsequently rocked South America brought military spending largely to a halt and hastened the advent of widespread social and political changes that culminated with the election of broadly left-leaning, populist governments across most of the region.

Lingering effects of the economic downturn and new social commitments by these governments continue to place military modernisation on hold in all but four countries: Brazil, Chile, Colombia and Venezuela. The rest of the region's military capabilities were left to deteriorate.

Symptomatic of conditions in South America now is the care and attention to detail with which armed forces and governments undertake major military procurements, taking into consideration the potential pitfalls of both domestic and international scrutiny. Nonetheless, according to a Jane's Latin American analyst, overall military spending in the region will modestly increase over the next four years.

............

Chile

In perhaps the most significant airpower development in South America since the arrival of Peru's MiG-29s, Lockheed Martin handed over the first two new-build F-16 Block 50 fighter aircraft to the Chilean Air Force (FACh) at an official ceremony in Santiago on 31 January. The pair of two-seat F-16Ds are the first of a batch of 10 fighters ordered in 2002. The balance of the order, two more F-16Ds and six single-seat F-16Cs, will be delivered by the end of 2006. The new fighters will re-equip the fighter group at Iquique, in northern Chile near the border with Peru, replacing Mirage 5Ms.

During a 2004 Jane's interview, the then Defence Minister, Michelle Bachelet, now President-elect, strenuously denied that the F-16 buy was promoting a South American arms race. "There is no arms race except in the press," she said. "In regular discussions with my counterparts in the region, including Peru, I have assured them that our procurement programmes are just routine replacement of old equipment and they have agreed."

Since that interview, Chile has decided to accelerate the retirement of ageing Mirage 50 Panteras and Mirage 5M Elkans, replacing them with surplus Dutch F-16s. While Chile's reassurances are certainly sincere, Peru must be nervous, since the advent of advanced F-16s next door largely eclipses Peru's MiG-29s and Mirage 2000s, both of which require upgrades to remain effective.

Altogether, Chile will obtain 18 F-16s from the Netherlands: 11 F-16AM single-seat and seven BM twin-seat fighters. They were built between 1982 and 1988 and received mid-life updates (MLUs) between 1997 and 2003 to M2 software standard. Lockheed Martin will modify the aircraft to Chilean MLU standard, including the removal of their High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM) capability. They will be delivered in three batches of six, commencing in September 2006, with subsequent deliveries in June and September 2007.

General Osvaldo Sarabia, head of the FACh, confirmed that the Dutch F-16s would re-equip two existing fighter groups based at Antofagasta in the north and Punta Arenas in the south, replacing all the Mirage types by the end of 2007. A larger order of new Block 50 F-16s was deferred due to the failure to negotiate an acceptable offset package and concerns about dependence on the US.

Interestingly, the new Block 50 F-16s will be armed with a curious mix of US and Israeli weapons and pods and the US-standard Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing System by Vision Systems International, itself jointly owned by Rockwell Collins and Elbit. Choices include US AIM-120C advanced medium-range air-to-air missiles and laser-guided bombs, Israeli targeting and reconnaissance pods and probably other advanced Israeli weapons such as the SPICE precision glide bomb. There is no word yet on whether the second-hand F-16s will receive the same capability. Undoubtedly, though, the FACh will shortly possess airpower capability that is unrivalled in South America.

An emerging initiative under consideration in Chile is a new call for bids to replace 15 Northrop F-5 Tiger IIIs later this decade. The F-5s were extensively modified with new radars and weapons in the late 1990s and any replacement is expected to be an air superiority fighter. One option may be a second order of new F-16s, but EADS is active in Santiago creating a scenario for Eurofighter that takes advantage of Chilean desires for alternatives to US dominance. Not neglecting other requirements, in July 2005 Chile signed a declaration of intent (DOI) with Airbus Military to purchase up to three A400M military transport aircraft and will likely sign a contract early in 2006. The A400M will replace C-130 Hercules transports and provide Chile with much enhanced airlift capability for military, humanitarian and peacekeeping activities. Delivery is not expected before 2012. More urgently, a boom refuelling capability is required to support the F-16 fleet and will likely come from Israel, possibly by upgrading the FACh's existing Boeing 707 hose and drogue tankers, soon to be redundant.

The next major aircraft procurement will likely be helicopters for the army, air force, navy and national police, though a single platform for all the services is unlikely. A favourite is thought to be the Indian Hindustan Aeronautics Dhruv, with avionics by Israel Aircraft Industries.

Nice pics, that camo blends pretty nice with the mountains.

J.

Hi, there are a video of a public presentation of the chilean F16 in SCL

http://media.putfile.com/F-16-FACH

And from a Mirage Elkan (MIRSIP) wich is the plane replaced by the dutch F16 buyed by our AF

http://media.putfile.com/Mirage-Elkan

Bye

Those Elkans are ex Belgian Mirage-5 MIRSIP planes, aah nostalgic feelings.... They still wear the same cammo sceme! Nice to see them back in action. They were replaced by f-16's in belgium an now in Chile also!

Hi Timpus

Yeph the Elkan (In native Mapudungun means "Guardian") are the Mirage MIRSIP, they were assigned to the FACH Grupo 8, which are the attack / bomb squadron of the force and were deployed in Antofagasta AB. In FIDAE 2006 we see a lot of interest from another South American AF for the bird, in specific, AF officers from Ecuador and Honduras inspected the planes ... maybe we havent seen the end of they careers .... I`m gona ask them to keep the cammo scheme so you can keep that nostalgic feeling Wink

Here are some more videos from my pal elessar ... enjoy

http://www.youtube.com/profile_videos?user=elessar78

And here leave you a link to some videos of the FACH with the Salitre exercise in Iquique, CEIBO and the recepcion of the F16 ...

http://www.fach.cl/galeria/galeria.htm

beautiful birds ya got there, they make ours look look sorta ghetto Razz

Last edited by elessar on May 31, 2006 - 02:16 AM; edited 1 time in total

Well, I see that Feña won on this one... Wink

Here I have a couple of Chilean's F-16 videos from Fidae-2006, an Air Show on SCL, from last april...

Fidae2006 - F-16 D Block50+ making a high velocity pass: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0BFiL9D4sY

Fidae2006 - F-16 D Block50+taking off: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bbX43Q_rdP8

Enjoy them!

Greetings,
elessar

Forum: F-16 Spotting & Photography

Chilean F 16