How Capable Would the F-16 Block 80 Fighter Be? A New Option For the U.S. Air Force.

Questioning U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General David Allvin regarding the future of the service, chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Thomas Cotton on May 20 raised the possibility of a new variant of the F-16 fighter, an F-16 Block 80, being procured. The F-16 is currently the most widely fielded fighter class in the U.S. Air Force or anywhere in the Western world, and has gone through multiple production blocks from the 94 Block 1 and 197 Block 5 aircraft produced in the late 1970s, to the enhanced Block 70/72 aircraft in production today. “Focusing on just the next decade, then, our current acquisition options are pretty limited. Would you be able to use newly built U.S.-configured Block 80 F-16s to strengthen our strike fighter fleet, if Congress can find additional funds for such an effort?” Cotton asked. Responding to the question, Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Allvin that he would need to investigate “would be to take that export variant and adapt it to a Block 80, and the time it would take, and where that would fall in the production line,” in order “to see if that would be an advisable situation.” While the possibility of the U.S. Air Force resuming procurements of the F-16 has been raised repeatedly, and with growing frequency as the F-35 program has faced mounting issues and cost overruns, it remains highly uncertain what capabilities an enhanced F-16 would field.
The most modern variant of the F-16 procured by the Air Force, the F-16 Block 50/52, is today considered obsolete, with production of the newer F-16 Block 60 and Block 70/72 having been financed entirely by export funding. The Air Force would very likely take the F-16 Block 70 as a basis for developing a new variant for its own use. This would mirror the case for the F-16’s heavier counterpart, the F-15, which the Air Force ceased to procure in 2001, only to resume procurements in 2020. In the interceding 19 years, the F-15’s capabilities had been incrementally improved as new variants were developed using export funding for South Korea, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The F-15EX, which would broadly be equivalent to the F-16 Block 80 in terms of its development, built on the most capable export variants with the integration of more advanced avionics, most notably the AN/APG-82(V)1 AESA radar, replacing the AN/APG-63 AESA radar that had equipped Singaporean, Saudi and Qatari models, and preceding mechanically scanned array radars. Although the F-16 Block 70/72’s AN/APG-83 AESA radar is significantly newer today than the AN/APG-63 was when new F-15s were ordered by the Air Force, development of a new radar remains a significant possibility should the F-16 Block 80 be financed. Where the AN/APG-83 is considered technologically broadly on par with the new F-35 fifth generation fighter’s AN/APG-81 radar, albeit much smaller, a new radar for the F-16 could see many of its technologies derived from the F-35’s new AN/APG-85 radar developed for stealth fighters built the Block 4 standard. Operationalising a Gallium Nitride based system on these radars has been speculated, and could significantly ease conflict between their signal strength and power usage.

mirroring the design choices made by France and Sweden for their Rafale and Gripen E/F fighters, as well as the decision to integrate the large AN/ASQ-239 electronic warfare suite on the F-35. New generations of stealth coatings developed for the latest variants of the F-35 may also be applied, as may new radar absorbing composite materials. Although funding for a clean sheet new engine remains unlikely, an enhanced variant of the F110 engine, possibly based on the F110-GE-132 developed for F-16 Block 60, remains possible.

An F-16 Block 80 is likely to be made compatible with new generations of armaments developed for the F-35, including the Extended Range Attack Munition (ERAM) designed to operate when facing extreme electronic interference, and the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) derived from the JASSM cruise missile. Although the F-16 is a lightweight fighter, and is limited by its small radar size and low endurance, it has the potential to provide a cost effective lower tier fighter for the Air Force, and one with a significantly greater combat potential to the alternative proposal of an ’F-7’ fighter - a lighter concept based on the T-7 trainer. While shortcomings with the F-35 program has made the procurement of a new lighter fighter appear increasingly vital, it remains highly uncertain whether this will lead to future procurements of the F-16, and what technologies it will integrate.
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