On November 29th 2016, Bill Carey wrote an article for AIN Online talking about how Lockheed Martin was awarded a contract that will upgrade South Korea’s F-16s. This contract as a price tag of over $1 billion foreign military sale (or FMS). This contract will be to upgrade 134 of the F-16s to a “V” configuration. Lockheed Martin plans to complete the upgrade by the year 2025 which the contract was originally awarded to BAE Systems.
The first F-16V flight was completed in October 2015. After around 80 sorties, the Lockheed Martin has hopes to complete their flight test program for early next year. This was announced at the Singapore Airshow in February.
Here is what Susan Ouzts, the Lockheed Martin F-16 program vice president, had to say about the contract.
“We truly appreciate the trust and confidence the Republic of Korea has placed in us with this contract. These upgrades are a critical piece of South Korea's national defense and highlight Lockheed Martin's commitment to the full lifecycle of the F-16, from production to through-life sustainment.”
Lockheed Martin’s next customer for the new upgrade appears to be Singapore. There is also an offering to upgrade Indonesia which was announced at the early November Indo Defense conference which was held in Jakarta in early November. It seems as if this version would also include Auto Ground Collision Avoidance System.
