F-16 Fleet Reports

F-16 aircraft version inventory

Previous: F-16 aircraft conversions Next: F-16 aircraft version attrition rate

Data

This graph shows the current fleet status for different F-16 models. For each major version it shows the number of airframes that are still active or converted, that were stored/preserved or became an instructional airframe and that were written off or scrapped. Note that converted airframes are shown twice: once as converted in the 'source' model (e.g. block 15 and once with their actual current state in the conversion model (e.g. ADF and MLU).

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: The different major F-16 versions
Vertical Axis: Number of F-16 airframes for each version and status
Series: The different series represent the different states that aircraft are in, from active to scrapped

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

Many F-16s have surpassed the original design life of 4,000 hours by far. This is the first F-16 to fly 7,000 hours, a USAF F-16C block 25 jet called 'Lethal Lady', from the 134th FS. The aircraft was retired a few months later.

As can be expected, many of the older airframes (F-16A/B) are no longer active. Only a handful of block 5 and block 10 aircraft for example are still flying at the time of writing (30 for the former, 70 for the latter). A significant amount has ended up as instructional airframe, or preserved as gate guards or in museums. This is of course no surprise, since typically the first aircraft to retire are used in this capacity. Other block 1-15 airframes have been placed in storage at facilities like AMARC in the US or Weelde in Belgium, waiting to be sold. At the time of writing, 34 F-16s have actually been scrapped - Belgium and the Netherlands being the only countries so far to take this step with the US to follow in 2009.

As illustrated in previous reports, a large number of block 15 and block 15OCU aircraft have been converted into ADF (Air Defense Fighter) or MLU (Mid-Life Update) models. Since then, USAF has placed most of the ADF models in storage. The 69 that are still active were actually brought out of storage and sold/leased to Italy, Jordan and Thailand. Most of the MLU aircraft are still active, the conversion being fairly recent and providing enough advanced capabilities to keep the aircraft current until at least 2020-2025.

As far as the C/D fleet is concerned (block 25 and up), most airframes are still active, except for the ones lost due to attrition. The next article will explore the attrition rates in detail. Some of the earlier C/D airframes have already been placed in storage, mainly block 25 and block 30 aircraft, since these airframes are reaching the end of their designed hours (8,000), with some of those airframes reaching 7,300 - 7,500 hours.

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