Forum: F-16 News

Bjorn, you're wrong. The BLK-20 does have color MFD's, it came with them standard equipment.

The jets were not delivered until beginning of 1997. Taiwan spirals their own M-tapes.

I know, I flew the airplane for 3 years training the Taiwan pilots at LUF.

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OK, new info for me. I didn't know the Taiwanese had their own subset of M-tapes. In that case the predecessing discussion has been wrong and those airframes should be up to par with the other MLU airframes. In that case I also have questions about an MLU package to these jets is usefull? Unless some of the more advanced features of the European MLU package have been left out for the Taiwanese up till now.

Greets,

To me the big difference between the F-16A and the F-16AM and Taiwan Block 20 is the introduction of the MMC. When I say that the Block 20 is a "production" MLU aircraft I mean that it came from the factory with MMC and AIFF installed. Even with EPAF MLU aircraft, the MMC and AIFF came first and then JHMCS, Link-16, and other goodies came later.

The Taiwan jets have the distinct advantage of having a (structurally) more sound airframe, incorporating many of the improvements (lessons learned) from the Block 40 and 50 airframes.

So (stretching a little bit) if you added JHMCS, Link-16, etc., to a Block 20, you are pretty close to a Block 50 except for DFLCS and APG-66 radar. Although you could slap in one of NG's or Raytheon's new drop-in radars and bring the jets into the 21st century, you would still be stuck with analog flight controls (not that there's anything wrong with that.)

Best Regards,

So it sounds like RoCAF aircraft need a post MLU upgrade. If I were Taiwan, I'd ask for the following:

- SABR or RACR upgrade
- F100-PW-229 engines
- Link-16
- JHMCS

66 F-16C/D Block 52 Plus would make a great follow on order in addition to the upgrades. That would give the RoCAF over 200 advanced F-16s

Forum: F-16 News

66 F-16C/Ds to Taiwan?