Even with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter low looming large on the horizon, a senior Lockheed Martin official said on Wednesday that he still anticipates the company will receive international orders for perhaps 80 to 100 additional F-16s before everything is said and done for the Viper line in Fort Worth, Tex. These are in addition to all existing F-16 orders. Part of the reason for confidence, Rob Weiss, corporate VP for business development, told reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference is that the F-16 keeps getting repeat buyers—14 of 24 purchasers already have come back for more. These include Greece, Israel, and Turkey. Weiss said the assembly plant will have no trouble accommodating additional F-16s even when F-35 production—at the same site—begins to speed up.
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
