News Archive

March 2004


31 March 2004 The 2004 Semper Viper Award goes to Maj. Andrew T. Lyons
Maj. Andrew T. Lyons, an F-16 instructor pilot with the 421st Fighter Squadron at Hill AFB, Utah, is the 2004 winner of the Joe Bill Dryden Semper Viper Award....
29 March 2004 NATO F-16 fighters to arrive at Lithuania
NATO F-16 fighters will arrive today at the Lithuanian Siauliai military air base. On March 27th, a C-130 Hercules transporter delivered supporting personnel and essential facilities to Siauliai. ...
27 March 2004 Belgian F-16s to patrol Baltic skies
As soon as next week, Belgian F-16s are most likely due to set course to the three Baltic states (Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia) that are becoming full NATO members next Monday. The ultimate decision will be taken on Monday by Belgian Defence Secretary A. Flahaut....
26 March 2004 Sergeant rides F-16 he fixed
Repair of unique damage like formation mid-air's means that sometimes the USAF turns to very specialized people. For the F16, that is usually the 649th Combat Logistics Support Squadron or "CLSS" unit. ...
26 March 2004 Close-air support variant of Joint Strike Fighter too heavy
Early reports show that the Air Force's next generation close-air support aircraft has a weight problem. Secretary of the Air Force Dr. James G. Roche told members of the Senate Committee on Appropriations subcommittee on defense the issue was predictable....
25 March 2004 Astronics awarded contract for Night Vision Conversion of ROKAF F-16s
Astronics Corp. has been awarded a production contract worth $4.4 million from the Republic of Korea Air Force. The work on Korea's F-16 fleet will be done through Luminescent Systems Inc., a subsidiary of East Aurora-based Astronics. ...
24 March 2004 F-16s will patrol the sky during Euro 2004 and Athens Olympics
The Portuguese air force is to close the airspace over stadiums, and patrol the skies with F-16 fighter jets on match days for Euro 2004. Similarly, Greece will have F-16s in the air during the Athens Olympiad....
24 March 2004 Russia warns against NATO interference in Baltic states
Russia has warned NATO against assisting Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in monitoring their air space when the countries become members of the NATO alliance in a few days. ...
24 March 2004 EDO corporation awarded contract for 34 BRU-57s
EDO Corporation has been awarded a $6.3 million "Foreign Military Sale" contract for 34 production-phase BRU-57 bomb-release units on F-16 aircraft. Deliveries are expected to be completed by 2006. ...
24 March 2004 USN to equip F-16s with FACE
RADA Electronic Industries Ltd. announced today it has singed a contract with the United States Navy to equip its new F-16 squadron with the FACE system. FACE is a flight data recorder aimed at fatigue monitoring, maintenance and safety....
24 March 2004 310th FS To Expand Forward Air Controller Training
Combat air forces are clamoring for forward air control (airborne)-capable pilots. These pilots are known as FAC-As. The 310th Fighter Squadron at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, runs the only schoolhouse for F-16 Fighting Falcon pilots training to become FAC-As....
24 March 2004 Joint Strike Fighter under attack on Capitol Hill
A senior Air Force official told lawmakers March 25 that the service would not be interested in the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter if a technical glitch could not be overcome or if program funds were cut off....
23 March 2004 Micronetics receives order for integrated microwave assemblies
Micronetics, Inc. announced today that its Receiver Components Group has received an initial development order to provide integrated microwave assemblies for an upgraded IFF (Identification Friend or Foe) navigation and communication system on the F-16 Fighting Falcon....
23 March 2004 Qatar evaluating the F-16
Qatar has been evaluating a range of Western fighter-jets as part of its air force modernization program. The Qatari Air Force has been proposed the F-16, Rafale, Gripen and Eurofighter by respectively the United States, France, Sweden and Germany....
19 March 2004 Col. Linda McTague first woman to command F-16 squadron
Air National Guard Col. Linda McTague does not see herself as a pioneer for women's achievements, but she realizes that other people consider her to be a role model for what women can accomplish in this country's military service. And she said she strives very hard to live up to those expectations, as well as to her own....
19 March 2004 Quality control by the 514th Flight Test Squadron, Hill AFB
They take great care not to be identified with test pilots and their immortal images, burned into our brains from movies like "The Right Stuff." But if they didn't have great faith in Hill AFB's maintainers, they could consider their job just as dangerous. ...
18 March 2004 No decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan yet
The United States will designate Pakistan a major non-NATO ally in a move that will significantly enhance military co-operation between the two countries and make it easier for the country to acquire U.S. arms....
17 March 2004 Operation Northern Watch Ends
Operation Northern Watch officially ended on March 17th, 2004 when the last mission was flown from Incirlik AB, Turkey. This special distinction was held by an F-16 unit, the 55th EFS from Shaw AFB which had 8 aircraft deployed, six of which departed for home on April 7th and the other two left on April 12th. Over 36,000 missions were flown for Operation Northern Watch. In combination with ONW and Operation Provide Comfort which spanned 12 years of military operation, over 78,000 sorties were flown....
16 March 2004 Singapore signs on to JSF Program
Singapore, which plans to upgrade its air force, signed an agreement to become the first Asian participant in Lockheed Martin Corp.'s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, with an option to buy the planes starting in 2012....
16 March 2004 310th FS to do all USAF F-16 NVG training
The 310th Fighter Squadron stationed at Luke Air Force Base, Arizona, has provided Night Vision Goggle (NVG ) training to 60 percent of the pilots who fly the Air Force's primary fighter, the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Next month, the 310th will begin training all F-16 pilots in the use of NVG's. ...
15 March 2004 Adacel to supply fighter software
Melbourne-based Adacel Technologies will supply speech recognition software systems for the $US200bn global Joint Strike Fighter program. ...
12 March 2004 Danish F-16s could patrol the Baltic countries
Denmark considers to send four F-16s to patrol Lithuania, Latvia or Estonia next month when the Baltic nations are set to join NATO, a Danish military spokesman said on Thursday....
11 March 2004 JASSM gets USAF approval for full rate production
According to Lockheed Martin, JASSM (Lockheed Martin's Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile) has received the go-ahead from the U.S. Air Force to enter full-rate production. USAF intends to deploy JASSM on its F-16, B-1, B-2 and B-52 aircraft. ...
11 March 2004 Air Force buying land, easements around Luke AFB
The Air Force plans to acquire more than 2,100 acres and permanent easements around Luke Air Force Base with $27.3 million in federal money....
10 March 2004 Shaw F-16s return safely after midair collision
Two F-16 Fighting Falcons from Shaw Air Force Base landed safely yesterday after being involved in a midair collision over the Atlantic Ocean. The two pilots who were on a scheduled training mission returned uninjured to Shaw around 15.00h....
10 March 2004 More progress on F-16 Technical Documentation
The following Lockheed Martin press release explains several interesting details of the worldwide potential for all F-16 users getting more and more of their technical documentation that is traditionally paper and moving it toward an electronic format. ...
09 March 2004 Lockheed sees 70-75 deliveries of F-16s in next 2 years
Lockheed Martin Corp. expects to deliver 70 to 75 F-16 fighter aircraft over the next two years, according to its annual report filed Monday with the Securities and Exchange Commission....
07 March 2004 Montana ANG -120th Fighter Wing gets new C.O.
Col. Mark Meyer became commander of the Montana Air National Guard 120th Fighter Wing at a Saturday morning ceremony on Gore Hill. Meyer, 51, relieved Col. Patrick Pauli, who took the position in October 2001 and is retiring after more than 30 years of service. ...
06 March 2004 Tri-Industries to provide 112 spare rear fan ducts
Tri-Industries, Terre Haute, Ind., is being awarded a $6.6 million contract to provide for 112 spare rear fan ducts for the F100/PW/200/220 engines. This work will be completed by August 2005....
04 March 2004 Loss of Turkish F-16 pilot in 1996: ECHR gets involved
According to Turk.us, the family of a Captain who was killed in a dog fight over the Aegean Sea, sued Athens, at the European Court for Human Rights (ECHR). ...
04 March 2004 Threat Matrix - Latest IDF F-16 purchase needed?
An interesting "op-ed" piece from Maariv International about the latest F-16 deal for Israel implies that given the current, even reduced threat that the IDF faces, the money could have been better spent elsewhere. ...
03 March 2004 Flights test electro-optical sensors for F-35 JSF
The Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter team successfully launched the first phase of the F-35 Electro-Optical Distributed Aperture System (EO DAS) early risk-reduction flight-test program, with recently conducted flights near Patuxent River Naval Air Warfare Center in Maryland. ...
02 March 2004 HBM will provide data acquisition for F-35 structural test
HBM, Inc., a leading global supplier of measurement technologies, products and solutions for industrial test and measurement applications, has been awarded an $8.7 million dollar contract to provide data acquisition hardware and software for structural tests on the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program....
01 March 2004 Lockheed Martin offers F-16 to India
The Indian Air Force (IAF) is in negotiations with French, Russian and US bidders to purchase 125 frontline multi-role fighter planes to partially replace about 300 MiG-21 aircraft....