Forum: General F-16 forum

Yes, this is completely hypothetical and unrealistic but just for sh*ts and giggles, how effective could the Air Force be if the F-16 was our only fighter. Could we still be the best AF in the world?

Let's say we replaced every Raptor and F-15 with a larger number of F-16s (since the F-16 is cheaper). We would keep our bomber fleet (including the B-2) and all other support aircraft (AWACS etc.). We could also make upgrades to the F-16 (some of which are already being implemented) such as AESA radar and a new engine.

So the F-16 would be our strike aircraft and our air superiority aircraft. We could have variants such as the 2-seat F-16I to better optimize the Viper for different roles. Maybe we would develop one with a bunch of conformal fuel tanks to give it a range comparable to the Beagle. But we would still use the same basic platform for all the roles.

We would still have the biggest budget of any air force and have the same pilot selection and training programs we have in place. We would also have a numerical superiority over every other air force.

Would this air force be capable of defeating every other air force in the world? Some countries would have more advanced planes (e.g. Typhoon, Su-35) but some of the capability gap would be closed through upgrades. Also, we would have numerical superiority and still have all the supporting aircraft that we have now.

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... well you don't need to look any further then the Navy as most of the combat aircraft on a carrier are the F-18 variant - F/A-18Cs, F/A-18Es, F/A-18Fs, EA-18Gs.. a carrier carries more combat power on its flight deck than 70% of the worlds air force.

Remember for a time the USAF had an all F-4 force specifically Pacific Air Forces during the early to late 70s had an all F-4 Phantom force.

The biggest effective thing you will see is maintenance being much easier since the F-16s would share most common parts.

Not to mention that the F-16 can pretty much employ any and all A2A/A2G weaponry in our inventory...

with the Navy doing that pretty much as the previous post indicates, your hypothesis certainly carries both appeal and merit! Cheers

Still want to keep the Raptors though. Wink

Quote:

Remember for a time the USAF had an all F-4 force specifically Pacific Air Forces during the early to late 70s had an all F-4 Phantom force.

Wow, no Eagles and Vipers at all?

Would the F-16XL be allowed? That would give you a good F-15E replacement (and some nice revenge for the F-16XL, since it originally lost to the F-15E). Especially if while bringging the XL online you took the oppertunity to widen the engine bay a bit and cram an F-119 in it of at least an F-110-132.

Sufa Viper

icemaverick wrote:

Yes, this is completely hypothetical and unrealistic but just for sh*ts and giggles, how effective could the Air Force be if the F-16 was our only fighter. Could we still be the best AF in the world?

Let's say we replaced every Raptor and F-15 with a larger number of F-16s (since the F-16 is cheaper). We would keep our bomber fleet (including the B-2) and all other support aircraft (AWACS etc.). We could also make upgrades to the F-16 (some of which are already being implemented) such as AESA radar and a new engine.

It's not hypothetical really. They tried Package Q using F-16s for attack roles. It didn't work out so well. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Package_Q_Strike

Newer F-16s would still have trouble avoiding SAMs because they don't have EODAS and has a large radar and IR signature.

Sounds like poor planning and execution led to Package Q not working out so well.

Forum: General F-16 forum

How effective could an all F-16 air force be?