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What with F-15 Eagles wearing down faster and faster these days, what kind of longevity will the F-16 Fighting Falcon have for us in the forseeable future? I'm figuring the F-16 will soldier on for a decent time period after the F-15 has its last hurrah in our Air force.

Roughly speaking, that is. I wish either one wouldn't have to go away, but nothing lasts forever.

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Except B-52s. Actually given enough maintenance and new parts, any airplane could last as long. Like my old antique hammer. It has had three new handles and two new heads.

You will see either airplane still flying in the inventory way past 2025...

Cheers,

ViperDude

Newbie Joined: Jan 24, 2007 Posts: 7 Status: Offline

ViperDude wrote:

You will see either airplane still flying in the inventory way past 2025...

Cheers,

ViperDude

Actually the f-16 Systems Program Office is working on a program called Viper 2020. With the Falcon-up and Falcon Star mods they are trying to increase the life expectancy by 50%. With the exception of the tinker toy landing gear system the viper is a pretty well build airframe and the avionics is very upgradable.

I don't know if the F-15 would make it to that mark or further, between the airframes and the powers that be. I figured the F-14 would soldier on a little longer too, but they sold it out for an F/A-18 on steroids. Sad

I figured the F-16 would have the legs due to being made to handle(and be limited by, I suppose) 9g loading. That F-16 2020 program sounds interesting. Nice to see them putting more into F-16s, since they are less expensive to maintain on the whole. You guys out there keep taking good care of them, eh! Thumb

I see the F-16 flying for at least another 30-40 yrs although they will probably be retired from the USAF in half that time. I wonder if the AF will ever give in and buy some Blk 60s or maybe the next new block to come along. Who knows how long it will be before the F-35 reaches FOC status.

It would be nice to see the US break down and buy some Block 60s, but looking at history we know that ain't gonna happen...the F-16 will be around for as long as the KC-135 and B-52 will still be around...are the F-15C/D models cleared to fly again?

tokenblkguy1785 wrote:

It would be nice to see the US break down and buy some Block 60s, but looking at history we know that ain't gonna happen...the F-16 will be around for as long as the KC-135 and B-52 will still be around...are the F-15C/D models cleared to fly again?

As far as I know they are cleared to fly again but it hasn't been pretty for the F-15 world lately between crashes and other incidents. Hopefully things turn around for them.

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F-16 Longevity