Overview

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a multi-role jet fighter aircraft developed by General Dynamics in the United States. Designed as a lightweight fighter, it evolved into a successful multi-role aircraft. The Falcon's versatility is a paramount reason it was a success on the export market, serving 24 countries.[1] The F-16 is the largest and probably most significant current Western fighter program, with over 4,000 aircraft built since production started in 1976. Though no longer produced for the United States Air Force, it is still produced for export.

The Fighting Falcon is regarded as a superb dogfighter, with innovations including a frameless canopy for better visibility, side-mounted control stick to ease control while under high g-forces, and reclined seat to reduce the effect of g-forces on the pilot. It was also the first fighter aircraft to be deliberately built to sustain 9g turns. Although the F-16's official name is "Fighting Falcon", it is known to its pilots as the "Viper", after the Battlestar Galactica starfighter.[2]

In 1993 General Dynamics sold its aircraft manufacturing business to the Lockheed Corporation, which became part of Lockheed Martin after a 1995 merger with Martin Marietta.

History

During the 1960s the Air Force and Navy both concluded that the future of air combat would be determined by increasingly sophisticated missiles. Future "fighters" would be designed primarily for long range, high speed, and equipped with extremely large radar systems in order to detect opposing fighters at long range. This made them much more like interceptors than classic fighter designs. In the early 1960s both the Air Force and Navy expected to use the F-111 (then still in development as the TFX) and F-4 Phantoms for their long and medium range needs complemented by several single-engine designs including upgraded F-100 Super Sabres, F-104 Starfighters, and F-8 Crusaders. Future twin-engine fighter programs were getting underway and the Air Force began a replacement for its single-engine fighter designs to maintain its high-low mix of air superiority aircraft.

Real-world experience in the Vietnam War showed the continued need for the 'high-low' fighter matrix system. Soviet-bloc fighters over Vietnam were proving to be a more of a problem than expected for US designs. Even though the U.S. had very large kills to losses ratio in its favor, combat revealed some shortcomings. Missiles of this era still had notable reliability issues, and restrictions on how they were used functionally. Combat invariably closed to short ranges where air-combat maneuverability and short range air-air weapons became critical. Dedicated interceptors like the F-102 Delta Dagger had also been tested in combat which revealed certain shortcomings. Although US training, doctrine and air control more than made up for these disadvantages, it was nevertheless clear to some in the Air Force that the all-missile doctrine was seriously flawed. Both aircraft of the future High-Low mix for the USAF would have guns (F-15 and F-16 respectively).

In particular, Colonel John Boyd developed the theory of energy maintenance in fighter combat, which relied on larger wings in order to preserve maneuverability. Larger wings would mean more drag in flight, usually resulting in lower range and slower top speed (although larger wings can also result in greater range due to increased payload and fuel). He felt this was a fair trade-off for a "real" fighter design. At about this time the navalized F-111 was running into serious problems, and was eventually abandoned in favor of a new design, the F-14 Tomcat. A combination of Boyd's tireless advocacy of maneuverability, and what is often viewed as a failure of the F-111 to develop into a suitable fighter, and notably the rather over-inflated performance estimates of the MiG-25 led the USAF to also start development of their own fighter design, the F-15 Eagle.

It was not long before the F-15 started growing into a very large design that appeared to be turning into an "F-111 mark II". Boyd was frustrated by this development, and convinced a number of others that the F-15 would need to be complemented by larger numbers of smaller fighters like previous twin-engine fighters. A group of interested parties formed the self-named "fighter mafia" and agitated for the development of the Light Weight Fighter. They eventually won a small amount of money, only $149,000 (~$715,000 year 2000 dollars) to conduct studies into such a design. Northrop had always been a proponent of light-weight designs and had continually developed plans for an advanced F-5 Freedom Fighter, and received $100,000. General Dynamics, looking to redeem themselves from the controversial F-111, received the remainder.

In May 1971 the US Congress released a report that was highly critical of both the F-14 and F-15 programs. They proposed funding the LWF with $50 million and an additional $12 million the next year. Several companies submitted proposals, but GD and Northrop had such a head start that they were both asked to produce prototypes for head-to-head testing. These were ready in 1974, and in extensive testing the YF-16 proved somewhat better all-round, winning the LWF contest.

By this point in time a number of countries were looking for a multi-role replacement for their existing F-104Gs and other older designs. Up to this point, the LWF was merely an evaluation program with no plans to purchase models, but the possibility of a European order lead the Pentagon to reconsider. The Air Force was now seeking a multi-role fighter to replace the F-105, so the program was renamed the Air Combat Fighter (ACF). In September 1974, the Air Force announced plans to purchase 650 ACF's. On 13 January, 1975, Secretary of the Air Force John McLucas announced the selection of the YF-16, beating out the YF-17.

Ergonomics and visibility

The pilot sits high in the fuselage with the canopy support-bow behind him, out of his field of view. This and the bubble canopy give the pilot an unobstructed field of view, a feature vital during air-to-air combat. The seat is reclined 30 degrees (other seats are typically inclined around 13 degrees) to help the pilot endure high accelerations (g-forces). The control stick is mounted on the right armrest rather than between the legs as is traditional, to aid in maneuvering during high g-force turns. In addition, a Heads-Up Display (HUD) displays vital information in the pilot's field of view.

With the exception of the HUD, many of these features remain controversial to this day. The side-mounted stick makes it difficult for the pilot to "switch hands" in order to operate cockpit controls with the right hand, often forcing them to use their left hand to operate controls on the center or right side of the cockpit (the latter being few). The reclined seat makes this difficult, as well as making it somewhat more difficult to look directly to the rear, one of the major advantages of the large canopy. It has been suggested that the actual benefit in terms of g capability is very close to zero, and the real reason for the large incline was to make the seat fit into the aircraft. The canopy itself has the problem of having to be much thicker than in most aircraft, where only the portion between the cockpit frame and nose have to be thick enough to guard against bird strikes. The F-16's has to be much thicker overall, and as a result is quite heavy and the seat cannot be ejected through it.

It is worth noting that some of these features have been used on newer aircraft design. The F-22 uses a single-piece canopy like the F-16, although the F-35 and Eurofighter Typhoon do not. Seat angles have universally been less than the F-16, normally around 15 degrees.

Combat Service

Due to their ubiquity, the F-16s have participated in numerous conflicts, most of them in the Middle East.

In 1981, eight Israeli F-16s participated in a raid that destroyed Osiraq, an Iraqi nuclear reactor near Baghdad. During the same year, the Israeli Air Force obtained the first air-to-air "kills" for the entire F-16 series, shooting down a Syrian Mi-8 helicopter and a MiG-21 jet. The following year, during Operation Peace for Galilee (Lebanon War) Israeli F-16s engaged Syrian aircraft successfully on numerous occasions. F-16s were also used afterwards in their ground-attack role for strikes against targets in Lebanon.

During the Soviet-Afghan war, Pakistan Air Force F-16s shot down at least 10 Afghan and Soviet ground attack and transport aircraft (1986-1988).[3] The same border clash saw the F-16's first unusual dogfighting skills performed by the Pakistan Air Force.

In Operation Desert Storm of 1991, 249 USAF F-16s flew over 13,000 sorties in strikes against Iraq, the most of any Coalition aircraft, with five lost in combat, three to surface-to-air missiles (SAM), one to a premature bomb detonation, and one to an engine fire. F-16s returned to Iraq in force in 1998 as part of the Operation Desert Fox bombing campaign and again in the 2003 Operation Iraqi Freedom invasion, flying ground support and SEAD missions.

F-16s were also employed by NATO during Bosnian peacekeeping operations in 1994-95 (one was lost to a SAM, resulting in the evasion and recovery of Captain Scott O'Grady), in the 1999 Operation Allied Force in Yugoslavia (during which one was lost to ground fire), and by the United States in Afghanistan since 2001. Two air-to-air victories were scored by USAF F-16s in Operation Southern Watch, four in Bosnia, and two in Operation Allied Force (one by a Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16 which shot down a Serb MiG-29 with an AMRAAM). F-16s would also participate in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. One F-16 crashed in June 2003 over Iraq due to fuel starvation.

On June 7, 2006, F-16s carried out two airstrikes which killed Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi, the leader of Al-Qaeda in Iraq, using two 500 lb bombs to destroy the al-Qaeda safehouse he was in.

Israeli F-16s were believed to have participated in the 2006 Israel-Lebanon conflict, since the aircraft is known to be the bomber workhorse of the Israel Defense Forces. The exact extent of the F-16's role in that conflict was not known publicly as of late July 2006 but was widely believed to be extensive. An IDF F-16I reportedly crashed on July 19 when one of its tires burst as it took off for Lebanon from an air base in the Negev. The pilots ejected safely and there were no casualties on the ground.

On November 27, 2006, F-16s carried out a ground support mission when one went down northwest of Baghdad. Militant groups claimed that they downed the aircraft using 2 SA-7 missiles when it was flying at very low altitude; The pilot was reported Killed In Action