Slovakia

Introduction

Slovakia is one of the latest customers of the F-16. The nation spent much of the 20th century as part of Czechoslovakia, a Warsaw Pact state allied with the USSR. After the fall of the Berlin Wall, Warsaw Pact, and Soviet Union, the country split into two new countries, the Czech Republic and Slowakia. The latter suddenly inherited a pile of aging Cold War technology and took possession of 12 MiG-29 fighters to start its own air force.

MiG fighters are old and can’t be easily integrated into NATO’s defense architecture, so Slovakia went shopping for new jets. The small country needed a small, single-engine fighter, which left them with the choice of the Swedish Gripen and the American F-16.

Inventory

Initial Order

Back in 2018 the Slovakian government asked the US for permission to obtain up to 14 newly build F-16 fighter aircraft in the latest version, being the block 70/72 of F-16V in short. As being a NATO member since 2004 the country has an important geographic position in the center of Eastern Europe. Still equipped with ageing Mig-29 it was time to upgrade their air force with more modern Western equipment. The contract was signed in the summer of 2019 for the delivery of 12 single-seat models and 2 dual-seat models. In total the $2.91 billion entailed these 14 aircraft, 16 F110 engines, 15 M61 A1 Vulcan 20mm guns, 16 APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radars, 14 Modular Mission Computers, 14 LINK-16 (MIDS-JTRS) secure communication systems, 16 LN260 EGI Embedded Global Positioning System Inertial Navigation Systems (EGI), 14 Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing Systems, 14 Improved Programmable Display Generators (iPDGs), 30 AIM-120C7 air-to-air missiles, 100 AIM-9X air-to­ air missiles, 12 AIM-9X Captive Air Training Missiles, 2 AIM-120C7, 24 AIM-9X additional guidance units; 224 each Computer Control Groups and Airfoil Groups for GBU-12 Paveway II 5001b Guided Bomb Kits, 20 Enhanced Computer Control Groups for Enhanced Paveway II (GBU-49), 150 KMU-572F/B Guidance Kits for Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) 5001b Guided Bomb (GBU-38), 60 LAU-129 Guided – Missile Launchers, 36 MK-82 or BLU-111 500 lb Inert Fill Bomb, 400 MK-82 or BLU-111 500 lb Bomb Bodies, 400 FMU-152 Joint Programmable Fuzes and 6 AN/AAQ-33 Sniper Pods.

At first is was foreseen that the first F-16s would be delivered in 2022 in time of the end-of-service of the venerable Mig-29. COVID-19, the Russian invasion in Ukraine and some servicedelivery issues crosed through that plan all together. With the Russian invasion all contacts with the country (and thus with Russian maintenance personnel) were broken. Together with a lack of spare parts all Mig operations already ended in 2022 causing a serious capability gap within the Slovakian Air Force.

The first flight of the first F-16 occured in 2023 with training of both pilots and ground personnel advancing at an impressive tempo. This made that the first F-16's touched down on Slovakian soil on July 22nd, 2024 starting the transition of the VS OSSR to its modern fighter force.

VS OSSR Inventory

Program	Model	Block	Qty.	Serials	Delivered
Initial Order	F-16C	Block 70	12	1001/1012	2024-2025
	F-16D	Block 70	2	1101/1102	2024

Operational Service

Units

Please refer to the F-16 Units section for an overview of units.