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Newbie Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 2 Status: Offline

I heard that Bahrain has recently upgraded the F-16 aircrafts to F-16 MLU. I would like a confirmation of these news but I couldn't find any news articles about this issue anywhere. Could anyone confirm this information and send a resource about this?

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Elite 1K Joined: Jul 12, 2005 Posts: 1581 Status: Offline

Hello f-falcon,

The RBAF fleet of 21 Block-40 F-16C/Ds were ordered in two batches - one in FY 90 (8 F-16Cs and 4 F-16Ds) and 10 F-16Cs from the FY 98 production.

One of the FY 98 Vipers was sadly lost in 2003 killing its pilot.

As a result of good cooperation with the US - housing the US carriers - when in the Gulf, the RBAF obtained AIM-120 AMRAAM missiles in 2002/2003. Another part of this deal was the installment of the AN/APX-113 AIFF system similar to the AIFF system found on the MLU and US CCIP aircraft. Color MFD screens were also added - similar to the MLU and US CCIP upgrades.

Although the RBAF Vipers are Block-40 examples they have the Block-50/52 airframe structure - hence no fuselage strength-plates visible. They also retain the WAC-HUD instead of the larger WAR-HUD normally associated with US Block-40/42 aircraft. Also the RBAF Vipers rely on the AN/AAQ-14 Sharpshooter target pods - a down-graded version of the LANTIRN target pod. Three Sharpshooters were delivered along with the first order in 1990 and an additional three pods came along with the second batch in early 2000.

RBAF Vipers are primarily tasked with air defense tasks, but occasionally carry Mk. 80-series of free-fall bombs, AGM-65B/D Maverick air-to-ground missiles and laser guided bombs in form of GBU-12/500lbs and GBU-10/2,000 lbs weapons.

For air defense the mandatory AIM-9 Sidewinder in its -9J/L versions are carried along with the AIM-120Bs.

Hope it helps a bit.

Greetings,

Henrik.

I recovered and launched a couple of the Bahraini AF Vipers as they transited Torrejon on their delivery back in '90 or so.

Mike

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