As of Feb. 22, Air Combat Command has 63 F-16s with cracked bulkheads, noted ACC boss Gen. John Corley. Fortunately, even though some of these Vipers are grounded, the problem is not as severe as it is for the F-15s that have defective longerons. The difference, he explained, is that ACC’s analysis predicts that an F-16’s cracked bulkhead does not create a structural “single point failure” that will lead to a catastrophic failure. Nonetheless, the problem needs to be fixed as the F-16s go through depot, and the number of affected fighters, which changes constantly, has been trending upwards.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.