July 28, 2007 (by Lieven Dewitte) -
The U.S. government has awarded an initial $187 million for long-lead tasks as part of a $1.1 billion contract to Lockheed Martin for the production of 30 new block 50 F-16 aircraft for Turkey.
TuAF F-16C block 40 #89-0038 from 162 Filo is taxiing back to the dispersal after a training flight.
This marks the 52nd follow-on buy of F-16s by 14 repeat customers.
Earlier this year, the governments of
Turkey and the United States signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance (
LoA) agreeing to the purchase of 30
block 50 F-16s.
The new aircraft will supplement the Turkish Air Force's (
TUAF) existing fleet of F-16s and contribute to the upgrade and modernization of the TUAF. The new aircraft include the same advanced systems being installed on Turkey’s existing F-16 fleet as part of an on-going upgrade program. At the conclusion of these two programs all Turkish F-16s will be in a common, state-of-the-art configuration. The final Turkish F-16 under this contract will be delivered in 2013.
