An opening ceremony at Paya Lebar Airbase in Singapore set the stage for Exercise Cope Tiger, a tri-lateral exercise in Thailand in February. Cope Tiger is a joint air exercise between the Royal Thai Air Force, the US Air Force And the Royal Singapore Air Force.

The first eight of the F-16 E/F Block 60 fighter jets custom developed for the Emirates will be delivered to the Gulf country next year. The Emirates signed a contract with the defense giant in 2000 to acquire 80 F-16s with particular requirements.

Oman will see the delivery of 12 F-16s in 2006, but according to Lockheed officials Qatar is also a "potential client."

The newest, most advanced Lockheed Martin F-16 completed a successful first flight on Saturday.The aircraft is the first of the Block 60 line, which has been designated the F-16E/F version. It is the first of 80 F-16E/F Block 60 aircraft being produced for the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under an order placed in early 2000.

The U.S. Air Force recently further extended the phase maintenance interval for its Block 40/42/50/52 F-16C/Ds to 400 flight hours. The F-16 now ties with the A-10 as the longest phase maintenance interval among all USAF combat aircraft.

Today, a formal consensus has been reached between al government parties to update the Belgian strategic plan for the armed forces. Major rumors existed the past months and weren't really opposed by the government before the plan was made public this afternoon.

A look at how "offsets" and other agreements figure into an important F-16 sale. With offset agreements being the only way to make the sale, the following article gives a bit of a snapshot of how the F-16 is sold. In the end, it is usually the U.S. taxpayer that picks up the tab.

The long-awaited Israeli F-16I Sufa ('Storm') rolled off Lockheed Martin's production line in Texas.It is the first of 102 ordered by Israel in 1997. The estimated $4.5 billion dollar F-16I deal will be financed by the annual U.S. military aid package and concludes the largest Israeli military purchase in history.

According to a press release by the Eaton company, Lockheed Martin recently had an informal rollout of the F-16 Block 60. The Block 60 configuration incorporates some of the most extensive changes in the history of the F-16 program.

The United States has shipped AIM-120C AMRAAMs to Taiwan after China acquired similar Russian-built technology.

The first in a fleet of the most advanced F-16s will soon be sent to Israel. Israeli officials said they were pleased with the completion of the first F-16I Soufa, which means "storm" in Hebrew, a more sophisticated version of the F-16.

Lockheed Martin's Sniper XR Advanced Targeting Pod was approved by the U.S. Air Force to advance into Qualification Test & Evaluation (QT&E), a major milestone for the program. QT&E is under way on an F-16 Block 50 aircraft at Nellis Air Force Base, NV, and will continue with the F16 Block 30 through January 2004.

The Czech armed forces faces a straight choice between Lockheed Martin-made F-16 Fighting Falcons and JAS-39 Gripen aircraft produced by Saab/BAE Systems to fulfill their mid-term air defense needs after offers were submitted by five countries last Friday.

The Dutch Ministry of Defence has published the earlier announced defence cuts. In total 29 F-16M's , 6 new AH-64D 'Longbow' Apaches and all P-3 Orion aircraft will be withrawn from service.

The United States has delivered Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) missiles to Thailand to maintain the military balance in the region.