Taiwan to upgrade 145 F16 A/B

[weasel1962]

Thanks HornetFinn with Season Greetings, probably followed by a Merry White Christmas where you're located!

[hornetfinn]

Oh, thank you weasel1962 and same to you! Too bad we won't be getting White Christmas this year even up here north (Finland).

[marsavian]

How Taiwan's fighter pilots, and its most advanced jets, keep watch on China around the clock

https://www.businessinsider.com/on-taiw ... ?r=US&IR=T

Surrounded by farmland near the coast, the Chiayi air base is Taiwan's first to be equipped with F-16Vs, which carry upgraded radars, avionics and will eventually field new air-to-air missiles.

Chiayi's F-16 pilots are on call around the clock to see off the Chinese jets that regularly try to probe the airspace of the democratic island China claims as its territory, to be taken by force if needed.

Yen has intercepted Chinese H-6 bombers and J-11 fighters, and said he is confident in Taiwan's defense forces.

"I believe that our performance can match the abilities of the mainland's newest J-10 and J-11 fighters," Yen said.

Last year, the United States approved an $8 billion sale of 66 new Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters and 75 General Electric engines, as well as other systems.

Taiwan is also upgrading its existing 144 F-16 A/B jets into the more advanced F-16V variant. That is expected to be complete by 2022. About 15 are already in service at Chiayi.

[marsavian]

Following on from viewtopic.php?p=431248#p431248

PLAAF Senior Pilot Reveals Poor Performance in Joint Exercise With RTAF

https://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news ... e-rtaf?amp

Li is described as one of the most experienced Sukhoi Su-27SK/J-11A pilots in the PLAAF with some 3,200 hours in fast jets, much of them in the Russian-made Sukhoi. His revelations are unprecedented and are assessed by US intelligence as demonstrating a growing concern within the officer corps over deficiencies with the training regime for the PLAAF’s pilot cadre.

These first exercises ran at Korat Royal Thai Air Force Base and showed the advantages of the smaller and more technologically-advanced Gripen over the Russian Sukhoi. Several of Li’s summations from the exercise are:

The JAS-39 performance was at its worst inside the within visual range (WVR) envelope. Over a two-day period, PLAAF pilots shot down 25 Gripens at a loss of only one Su-27. The Su-27 has an advantage over the performance of the JAS-39 due to its more powerful Salyut AL-31F engines, and the Swedish aircraft was handicapped in that it was equipped with the older-generation AIM-9L Sidewinder instead of the current-generation Diehl IRIS-T missile.

Once the exercise transitioned to beyond visual range (BVR) combat, the superiority of the JAS-39 became readily apparent. The Swedish aircraft shot down 41 Su-27s over a period of four days with a loss of only nine JAS-39s.

The Su-27s flown by the PLAAF were operating with a modified version of the NIIP N001 radar that could fire the Vympel RVV-AE active-homing air-to-air missile (AAM). But its effective detection range was only 120km in comparison with the JAS-39’s Ericsson PS-05/A at 160km. The Gripen’s Raytheon AIM-120 AAM also outranged the RVV-AE at 80km versus only 50 km for the Russian missile.

Li stated that the JAS-39C/D’s much smaller radar cross-section (RCS) at 1.5-2.0 m2 was a major factor, as the much larger Su-27 is easier to detect at 12 sq miles. The JAS-39 can also ripple-fire up to four AIM-120s simultaneously but the Su-27 can fire only one RVV-AE at a time.

Gripen achieved 88 percent of its kills at 19 miles or greater, while the Su-27 had just 14 percent of its kills at this range. The RTAF also had 10 kills at a distance of more than 31 miles compared with zero long-distance kills by the Su-27.

In subsequent exercises the PLAAF fared better by sending the Chengdu J-10A - and then in 2019 the J-10C - in place of the Su-27. Li pointed out that the J-10C was more of a match for the JAS-39C/D in that “its active array radar significantly improves detection distance and multi-target attack capability, the DSI (divertless) air intake of the J-10C reduces the radar intercept area while the PL-15 missile increases the range, making it an over-the-horizon platform.”

Li also commented that the next-generation version of the Gripen, the JAS-39E, is likely to feature even more advanced combat performance. His interest in the aircraft parallels a larger body of analysis within the PLA intelligence community that has had a fixation on the design and development of the Gripen as a template for PRC industry to follow.

The Thai Gripen C had centerline fuel tanks in this exercise

https://mobile.twitter.com/gripennews/s ... 9833841664

[weasel1962]

Note that of ROCAF's main fighters, the Mirage 2000 spots a old RDY radar and the IDF spots an even older GD-53 which was last upgraded in 2001. Even the F-16s will only complete the full AESA upgrade in 2022 and those are 19-23 years old. Not exactly reassuring.

[steve2267]

I'm a bit surprised the ROCAF opted for Block 70s instead of 72s. With the 72s they would have kept logistics to all P&W. And if they kept buying -229EEP motors..., they could upgrade the -20s to -229EEPs as well. Am guessing that a Blk 20 with a -229EEP might redefine "monster"?

[weasel1962]

Putting an engine on an airframe not originally designed for it (even with buffers), creates additional stresses e.g. cracks that could ironically reduce airframe life instead. They would have considered all this before deciding on the engine.

[f119doctor]

One advantage that the PW-229 has is that it was designed as a drop in replacement for the PW-220 engine in small mouth intake F-16s. The only airframe modification required was a doubler added to the front engine mount to handle the increased engine weight and retain the full 9 g capability.

Of course, the greater T/W of this combination of early airframes and -229 engine enables more sustained G load capability that could reduce the fatigue life of the airframe. A Block 5 - 25 F-16 with the -229 has eye watering performance. A Block 15 B model could sustain more than 7 Gs while still accelerating thru 800 KCAS at Sea level conditions during -229 flight test.

[sprstdlyscottsmn]

A Block 15 B model could sustain more than 7 Gs while still accelerating thru 800 KCAS at Sea level conditions during -229 flight test.

good lord...

[f119doctor]

It might have been a Block 10 B model, definitely an early light weight airframe. It did not have the front engine mount beef up doubler, so they had a 7 g limit. At Max AB sea level testing off of Pt Mugu, the pilot couldn’t keep it below the 800 KCAS redline pulling to the 7 g limit.

[basher54321]

Excellent

[steve2267]

A Block 15 B model could sustain more than 7 Gs while still accelerating thru 800 KCAS at Sea level conditions during -229 flight test.

good lord...

That's what I thought.

I used to think "F-16 MLU" huh... ok, they did a mid-life upgrade. Big deal. I didn't realize until this week that an MLU is equivalent to a Blk50 avionics wise.

Throwing PW-229's into an MLU, with the NG APG-83 SABR radar upgrades they have ordered would make one helluva Viper. Just not sure how long it would last. (Might be a johnwill question.)

Could you imagine Taiwan putting PW-229's in all it's MLU birds (Blk 20s?) (which I think are also getting the APG-83?) and leavening the whole mix with 2-3 F-35 squadrons to play quarterback? Mother of gawd that would piss the Chinese CCP off, and would seem to really give the PLA airforce fits...

F-35 all MADL'd together... LINK16'd to Blk20-229 Vipers with APG-83. Holy crap.

[steve2267]

MLU-229 birds might need a SLEP. Still, prolly hellalot cheaper than buying new aircraft, and just buying new birds is a big deal for the ROC. So might as well maximize what you got.

[F16VIPER]

Hi. Does anyone know what are the visible external differences between the original RoCAF Block 20 and the upgraded F-16Vs.
Thank you in advance

[Boman]

Essentially non. All upgrades are internal.