Information supplied and copyrighted
by Joe Baugher
General Dynamics
F-16XFighting Falcon
Last revised March 31,
2000
Lockheed has proposed an improved version
of the F-16, the F-16X, as the USAF's next multirole fighter. It would have a new wing
based on that of the F-22 and no horizontal tail. It would have twice the range of the
F/A-18E/F at two thirds the cost.
Interim improvements leading up to the
F-16X could be introduced on F-16C/D Block 50 Plus aircraft, incorporating color cockpit
displays, a terrain-referenced navigation system, synthetic aperture radar, and a passive
missile warning system. Later Block 60 aircraft would have an internal LANTIRN system, APU
and increased internal fuel in the dorsal spine.
The production of the F-16X would begin
about 2010 if the program ever gets the go-ahead.
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.
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