F-16 Fighting Falcon

The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon is an American single-engine supersonic multirole fourth-generation fighter, built by General Dynamics at Fort Worth, Texas, and since 1993 by Lockheed Martin. Conceived as a lightweight day air-superiority fighter, it entered United States Air Force service in 1978 and primarily flew strike and suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD) missions. With 4,604 built and 25 export customers besides the USAF, it is known for its relaxed static stability/fly-by-wire control system, frameless bubble canopy and 9-g airframe. As of 2026, about 2,102 remained operational, the most of any fixed-wing military aircraft.

Development

The F-16 grew out of the USAF's Lightweight Fighter (LWF) programme, whose request for proposals of 6 January 1972 called for a 9,100 kg (20,000 lb) class day fighter. General Dynamics' Model 401 and Northrop's P-600 were chosen for prototyping as the YF-16 and YF-17; the YF-16 rolled out on 13 December 1973 and made its official first flight on 2 February 1974 at Edwards AFB. In April 1974 the LWF became the multirole Air Combat Fighter competition, and on 13 January 1975 the YF-16 won on lower operating costs, greater range, manoeuvre performance and its Pratt & Whitney F100 engine shared with the F-15. The Navy chose the YF-17 on 2 May 1975, leading to the F/A-18.

The full-scale development F-16A, with a longer fuselage, a larger radome for the AN/APG-66 radar and a wing enlarged from 26 to 28 m² (280 to 300 sq ft), first flew on 8 December 1976 (the first production-standard aircraft followed on 7 August 1978), and the 34th Tactical Fighter Squadron at Hill AFB, Utah, took the type into operational service on 1 October 1980. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway signed for 348 aircraft on 7 June 1975 to replace their F-104Gs, assembled by Fokker and SABCA; Turkey and South Korea built 232 and 140 more under licence. The last Fort Worth-built F-16 went to Iraq on 14 November 2017, and the line moved to Greenville, South Carolina, where the first Block 70 for Bahrain rolled out in 2023. A February 2020 contract extends USAF F-16 lives to at least 2048 with the AN/APG-83 radar; in September 2026 trade press reported US plans for a new F-16G variant.

Design

The F-16 combines a cropped-delta wing of 40° leading-edge sweep and NACA 64A-204 section with wing-body blending, forebody strakes for vortex lift, a fixed-geometry underslung intake and all-moving stabilators. The airframe is about 80% aluminium alloy, 8% steel, 3% composites and 1.5% titanium, designed for 8,000 flight hours and 9 g on full internal fuel. It was the first production fighter deliberately built with relaxed static stability, flown through a quadruplex fly-by-wire system with no mechanical backup — analogue on the A/B, digital from Block 40 — whose limiters hold angle of attack to 25° and load to 9 g. The pilot sits under a single-piece canopy on an ACES II seat reclined 30° and flies with a side-stick and HOTAS controls.

The Westinghouse AN/APG-66 of the F-16A/B gave way on the Block 25 to the AN/APG-68, with 25 modes and track-while-scan for 10 targets; the Block 60 carries the AN/APG-80 AESA and the AN/APG-83 SABR equips upgraded USAF and Taiwanese aircraft. The 106.0 kN (23,830 lbf) F100-PW-200 was joined by the General Electric F110 under the Alternate Fighter Engine programme and, in the early 1990s, by the 131.6 kN (29,588 lbf) F110-GE-129 on the Block 50 and the 129.7 kN (29,160 lbf) F100-PW-229 on the Block 52; the Block 60's F110-GE-132 gives 145 kN (32,500 lbf). An F-16C Block 50 weighs 8,573 kg (18,900 lb) empty and 19,187 kg (42,300 lb) at maximum take-off, reaches Mach 2.05 (2,178 km/h, 1,353 mph) at 12,200 m (40,000 ft) and ferries 4,217 km (2,620 mi) with three drop tanks.

Armament

A 20 mm M61A1 Vulcan cannon with 500 rounds sits in the left wing root. Nine hardpoints — two wingtip rails, six underwing and one centreline — carry up to 7,700 kg (17,000 lb) of stores, with two further fuselage stations for sensor pods. Early aircraft carried up to six AIM-9 Sidewinders and, from Block 25, AIM-7 Sparrows; the AIM-120 AMRAAM is now standard. Air-to-surface weapons include the AGM-65 Maverick, AGM-88 HARM with the AN/ASQ-213 targeting pod, AGM-158 JASSM, AGM-84 Harpoon, Paveway II/III, JDAM, GBU-39 Small Diameter Bomb, AGM-154 JSOW and CBU-87/89/97 dispensers; dual-capable aircraft carry the B61 nuclear bomb.

Operational History

The Israeli Air Force scored the type's first air-to-air kill on 28 April 1981, downing a Syrian Mi-8 with cannon fire, and on 7 June 1981 eight F-16s escorted by six F-15s destroyed Iraq's Osirak reactor in Operation Opera; Israeli F-16s were credited with 44 kills in the 1982 Lebanon War. Israel bought 102 F-16I Sufa for $4.5 billion in January 2000, delivered between 2004 and 2009; one was shot down by a Syrian S-200 on 10 February 2018. The single-seat F-16C Barak retired on 16 July 2024, while F-16Is struck Iranian air defences in October 2024 and Sana'a airport, some 1,700 km (1,056 mi) away, on 26 December 2024.

USAF F-16s flew in Desert Storm in 1991, over Bosnia and Yugoslavia — where one was shot down over western Serbia on 2 May 1999 — and in Afghanistan from 2001, Iraq from 2003 and Libya in 2011. European F-16s have held a NATO nuclear mission since 1982 from Kleine Brogel, Volkel and Aviano. Turkish F-16s shot down a Russian Su-24 on 24 November 2015 and two Syrian Su-24s on 1 March 2020, and Romanian F-16s shot down three drones, the first a Russian Shahed-type, between 24 and 26 July 2026.

Ukraine received its first F-16AM/BM Block 15 MLU aircraft from Denmark and the Netherlands in July 2024 and declared them operational on 4 August 2024, after pilot training in Denmark and the United States. A Ukrainian F-16 downed six cruise missiles on 13 December 2024; one was shot down over Sumy oblast on 12 April 2025, probably by an S-400, and Ukraine had confirmed five F-16s and three pilots lost as of July 2026. In 2022 the USAF said it would operate the F-16 for another two decades.

Variants

• F-16A/B: Initial single- and two-seat production aircraft (Blocks 1–20) with the AN/APG-66 radar; Block 15 is the most numerous variant with 983 built.
• F-16AM/BM: European Mid-Life Update of Block 15 aircraft to a Block 50/52-equivalent standard for Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, Norway and Portugal.
• F-16C/D: Multirole variants in production from 1984, from the Block 25 with AN/APG-68 radar to the LANTIRN-equipped Block 40/42 and the SEAD-capable Block 50/52.
• F-16E/F: Block 60 for the United Arab Emirates with the AN/APG-80 AESA radar, infrared search and track, conformal fuel tanks and the F110-GE-132.
• F-16I Sufa: Two-seat Block 52+ derivative for Israel with conformal tanks, an enlarged dorsal spine and Israeli mission systems; 102 delivered between 2004 and 2009.
• F-16N: Unarmed US Navy adversary aircraft based on the Block 30; 26 built, in service from 1988 to 1998.
• F-16V Viper: AN/APG-83 AESA radar, new mission computer and automatic ground collision avoidance, as an upgrade or new-build Block 70/72 (covered on its own page); the QF-16 is a full-scale aerial target converted from retired airframes.