Though the F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet is nearly fifty years old, the U.S. Air Force anticipates flying it for quite a long time to come. This is in part because of the large number of jets already in service, and as a cost-saving alternative to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. Additionally, with steady upgrades, the jet has proven to be surprisingly adaptive.
The Cold War-era airplane first debuted in the 1970s as the single-engine, less capable partner to the F-15 Eagle fighter. This created a high-low pairing strategy that saw multiple F-16s flying with more capable F-15 counterparts.
“The F-16 provides the capacity in our Air Force: lots of fighters to cover all kinds of combatant commander needs,” said Col. Tim Bailey, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s F-16 program manager, according to Air Force Magazine. He emphasized that the F-16 must remain “relevant,” and not just be “the F-16 of today.”
One of the upgrades F-16 fighters are enjoying is an active electronically-scanned array radar mechanism; the Air Force is installing the system “as fast as we possibly can,” Bailey explained. “We anticipate hundreds of F-16s in active service for decades to come,” possibly as far into the future as the 2040s, he added.
