F-16V, or Viper forever alive
F-16V, or Viper forever alive
On October 16 this year, the F-16 demonstrator of the latest version of the ADEX 2015 defense fighter F-35 was launched for the first time from the Lockheed Martin airport in Fort Worth, Texas. This is an important and significant event. an event in the history of the famous car, which, however, raises several questions. First of all, why is Lockheed Martin promoting a competitor to its latest product, the fifth-generation F-XNUMX Lightning II machine?
It's no secret that the F-16 is a fairly old design today, with its origins going back to the turn of the 60s and 70s. Conceived as a mass-produced and inexpensive light fighter, it eventually turned into a multi-role vehicle. The F-16 can hardly be called a cheap solution today, at least compared to the previous American serial multi-role light fighter, created on the basis of similar assumptions, the Northrop F-5E Tiger II. Nevertheless, it turned out to be so combat-ready and economical that today it has been purchased by 26 countries of the world - from small and medium-sized ones, ending with the country of origin, and there are about 4000 of them in operation. For many years, the F-16 has given an advantage over users of Soviet (Russian) and Chinese-made fighters. However, this situation has changed in at least a decade. Firstly, because in the Russian export offer there are aircraft capable of defeating the F-16 in a 1: 1 duel, and secondly, more and more countries, mainly thanks to Russia, receive anti-aircraft missile systems that can interfere with the F-16 . 35 from performing their offensive missions. Everything indicates that in the coming years this situation will become more and more complicated due to the increase in the technical sophistication of weapons produced in China, which today is the second country in the world offering fifth-generation fighter jets to foreign customers. Meanwhile, the F-16 - the aircraft "designated" as the successor to the F-4, which was supposed to replace it for all users to date - today is actually a machine of a completely different class and other purpose. However, the main difference between the two projects lies in the price of the fighter, which in the case of the Lightning II will probably always exceed the cost of acquiring modern twin-engine 35+ generation air superiority fighters. In addition, there are doubts about the actual reduction in the visibility of the F-35 and whether it will really be worth the price in a full-scale conflict. The F-35's small effective radar reflection area is obtained only with a relatively small number of weapons that can accommodate internal cameras. In this situation, it is increasingly doubtful that the F-22 will be able to achieve air superiority on its own, especially since, according to the doctrine of the US Air Force, it should have done this with the support of specialized F-16 Raptor machines - machines that remain inaccessible to the rest of the world. Meanwhile, in the January of this year. in tests of simulated maneuverable air combat with a two-seat F-35D (with additional fuel tanks suspended), the F-XNUMXD fared worse! Of course, nowadays for short fights
distances are rare, and in fact the F-35 will have an edge over the F-16D at longer ranges, for example. thanks to better sensors, but you can ask the question - is it not better to install such systems on a cheaper and more proven platform?
