Information supplied and copyrighted
by Joe Baugher
General Dynamics F-16A/B
Fighting Falcon for Iran
Last revised March 19,
2000
The first foreign customer beyond the
four original European NATO originators of the F-16 program was Iran. As a part of the
Shah's plan to modernize the Imperial Iranian Air Force, Iran signed a letter of intent on
October 27, 1976 for 160 F-16 aircraft, with the possibility of a follow-on order for 140
more. However, the Iranian revolution of 1979 which resulted in the overthrow of the Shah
and the rise of the Islamic fundamentalist regime which currently rules the country caused
the order to be cancelled.
Unfortunately, one immediate effect of
the cancellation of the Iranian order was that the individual unit cost of the F-16 was
driven sharply upward. However, many of the F-16s intended for Iran were eventually sold
to Israel.
Sources:
- Combat Aircraft F-16, Doug Richardson,
Crescent, 1992.
- General Dynamics Aircraft and their
Predecessors, John Wegg, Naval Institute Press, 1990.
- The American Fighter, Enzo Angelucci and
Peter Bowers, Orion, 1987.
- United States Military Aircraft Since
1909, Gordon Swanborough and Peter M. Bowers, Smithsonian, 1989.
- F-16 Fighting Falcon--A Major Review of
the West's Universal Warplane, Robert F. Dorr, World Airpower Journal, Spring 1991.
- The World's Great Interceptor Aircraft,
Gallery, 1989.
- Modern Military Aircraft--F-16 Viper, Lou
Drendel, Squadron/Signal Publications, 1992.
- Lockheed F-16 Variants, Part 1, World
Airpower Journal, Volume 21, Summer 1995.
- Israeli Air Power into the 1990s, Tim
Ripley, Air International, September 1993, page 128.
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