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F-16 Fleet Reports

F-16 fleet service life


Previous: F-16 fleet status over the years Next: F-16 fleet attrition over the years

Data

This graph shows the service life (age) distribution for the worldwide F-16 fleet. Service life is calculated as the number of years elapsed between the moment when the aircraft was delivered to the air force and the moment when it was removed from active service (or the current year, when the aircraft is still in service). Both the delivery year and the retirment year are counted (since the aircraft was active for at least part of that year). Example, if an aircraft was delivered in 1983, and put in storage in 1995, then the service life of that particular aircraft was 13 years.

Disclaimer: This report is generated in real-time from our F-16 Aircraft Database. We strive to keep our database up-to-date and complete, nevertheless for some countries data is hard to verify (e.g. accuracy for the Middle East is only 90%). Please contact us if you have any questions or feedback.

  • Horizontal Axis: Aircraft age
  • Vertical Axis: Number of F-16 aircraft of that particular age (as of today)
  • Series: The first series represents the service life distribution for active airframes. The second series represents inactive airframes (e.g. stored/scrapped/instructional airframes and attrition)


Click on the color labels to disable/enable series; click on the zoom icons to zoom in (+) or out (-). Click on the full screen icon to display the graph full screen.

Analysis


The oldest airframe still flying is RJAF #136 - former BAF #FB-01 - here at its delivery back in January of 1979.
The service life distribution for the global F-16 fleet shows the service life ranging from 1 to 30 years. Surprisingly enough 5 active airframes have a service life of 30 years, making them the oldest F-16s still in service. The average service life of the active F-16 fleet is 17.2 years.

For the active fleet, three major groups can be distinguished. The majority of the airframes have a service life of between 10 and 25 years. These obviously include the F-16A/B aircraft delivered to the USAF and the European Participating Air Forces (EPAF) nations - Belgium, the Netherlands, Norway and Denmark. It als includes the first Foreign Military Sales programs for Israel, Egypt and Turkey. These aircraft were block 1/5/10/15 aircraft and many of these aircraft underwent service life extension or were upgraded. Service Life Extension programs included Falcon Up, Falcon Star and some others. Upgrade programs included the F-16 ADF (Air Defense Fighter) and F-16 OCU (Operational Capabilities Upgrade) for the USAF, and F-16 MLU (Mid-Life Update) for the European aircraft.

The second group has a service life of between 10 and 15 years and includes the F-16C/D aircraft. Major customers for these aircraft include the USAF and a number of FMS prorams for Isreal, Turkey, Egypt and South Korea. Most of these aircraft are still in service. Service Life Extension programs included - as with the A/B models - Falcon Up and Falcon Star. Upgrade programs included the CCIP program for the USAF and international customers.

Finally, the third group has a service life of less then ten years and includes the most recently built and advanced F-16 airframes for Israel and the United Arab Emirates.

For the inactive fleet we can observe a more or less uniform distribution between 1 and 25 years due to constant attrition. Besides that, there's a significant group of inactive aircraft with a service life of 13 to 16 years. These are aircraft that were collectively retired in 1994 by the Belgian Air Force and USAF.

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