Forum: General F-16 forum

The QF-!6 prime contractor will be Boeing and the regenerations will be done at Cecil Field. They are designed for 300 hours flying time before termination. IOC is scheduled for 3Q FY15. Contract ends in 2022.

The SPM is the 728th, Armament Systems Group, Eglin AFB. System sustainment management is under the auspices of the F-16 SPO at Hill AFB.

210 will be created. 30 Block 15's (200 flying hours only); 103 Block 25's; and 77 Block 30's. All will be coming from the boneyard, w/o on board radar & gun systems.

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QF-16 will fly in the manned configuration with most of the drone boxes installed. It'll have a QF paint scheme with orange wing & stab tips, orange ventrals, and an orange vertical stab. Gun and all associated components are removed. Hydrazine and LOX converter will be removed for drone flights.

A bleeding waste of Vipers if you ask me Wink

#85-1570 in drone scheme

USAF QF-16C block 30 #85-1570 Full Scale Aerial Target seen on August 31st ,2012 at Cecil Field in Jacksonville IAP.

Looks a little like a model Wink

Weren't we going to sell block 25s to Indonesia and perhaps Romania? Wouldn't it make better business sense to upgrade and sell them instead of blow them up? What about using T-2, A-4s, and T-38s that have been retired instead of F-16s?

Romania is out of money for "new" military equipment, and the deal with Indonesia is pending approval with the US Senate I believe.
The last few years of floods etc. in Romania and other nearby parts of Europe have left many governments with other priorities.

discofishing wrote:

...Wouldn't it make better business sense to upgrade and sell them instead of blow them up? What about using T-2, A-4s, and T-38s that have been retired instead of F-16s?

Because those jets aren't the 4th Generation targets the program calls for. If a Buckeye can turn like a Viper then I didn't get that memo. Wink

And it's not like we'll empty the stored stock of Vipers at AMARG just to make them drones. There will still be plenty to sell if a deal calls for it. The Block 3X jets alone that are replaced as the F-35 gets fielded will fill the void left by the ones pulled for drone duty. (Assuming the F-35 survives Sequestration if this whole Fiscal Cliff nonsense isn't ironed out. Mad

)

Is the QF-16 something that would even survive Sequestration? I imagine a lot of lesser programs will get cut to save the F-35.

Boman wrote:

A bleeding waste of Vipers if you ask me Wink

IMHO, letting them sit in the Arizona sun waiting to be scrapped is more of a bleeding waste than turning them into drones. I would rather seem them flying again even for only a short time before being expended.

Agreed. Better to die in flames than rot on the ground.

discofishing wrote:

Is the QF-16 something that would even survive Sequestration? I imagine a lot of lesser programs will get cut to save the F-35.

It'll be an antsy time. There's something north of $1 Trillion of cuts involved over the next decade, of which the DoD has a fair portion. I don't know if any specific items/programs have been ID'd as targets. After what happened on Nov. 6, it's anyone's guess. But hey!....We got ourselves affordable health care! Rolling Eyes

LinkF16SimDude wrote:

Agreed. Better to die in flames than rot on the ground.

discofishing wrote:

Is the QF-16 something that would even survive Sequestration? I imagine a lot of lesser programs will get cut to save the F-35.

It'll be an antsy time. There's something north of $1 Trillion of cuts involved over the next decade, of which the DoD has a fair portion. I don't know if any specific items/programs have been ID'd as targets. After what happened on Nov. 6, it's anyone's guess. But hey!....We got ourselves affordable health care! Rolling Eyes

Sequestration is the result of politics. The problem is that "reducing buy rates" doesn't save money, it drives up costs. I'm hoping they'll do any further cutbacks intelligently instead of cutting a program, only to replace it with something double the cost in 5 years.

I'm not sure that cutting the QF-16 program would make a difference, it really isn't an expensive program, and they are rapidly running out of QF-4s.

Besides.. Doesn't Boeing provide health insurance for their QF-16 pilots?

We've already sent four F-16s overland to Hill AFB for Indonesia, the rest will be following soon. In regard to using T-2s, T-38s, or something along those lines, there's just not enough of those aircraft left to keep the program flying very long. It's not simply a matter of how many jets can we supply the program, but it's also a matter of spare parts to regenerate them out of the desert. Those parts come from other aircraft that have been heavily reclamated already. Additionally, once the aircraft have been converted to "Q" they will still need parts to stay in the air - they come from AMARG also. Plenty of F-16s here.

Uslugg1,

Can you tell us which 4 jets they are?

Greets,

Bjorn wrote:

Uslugg1,

Can you tell us which 4 jets they are?

Greets,

84-1243, 84-1281, 84-1272, & 83-1141