The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, awarded Lockheed Martin a $914 million foreign military sales contract to upgrade F-16s for the Singapore government, according to a Dec. 1 contract announcement. The work, which will be performed at Lockheed’s Fort Worth, Texas, facility, is slated to be complete by June 2023. The contract announcement does not say how many aircraft will be upgraded, but the Defense Department notified Congress last year of a possible foreign military sale to Singapore for an upgrade of 60 F-16 Block 52 aircraft. “The upgrades will address reliability, supportability, and combat effectiveness concerns associated with its aging F-16 fleet,” states the January 2014 Defense Security Cooperation Agency release.
Secretary of Defense Austin Lloyd III met with his counterparts from Australia, Japan and the Philippines to discuss bolstering defense ties on May 2. The discussion included plans for joint F-35 exercises with Japan and Australia in the coming years.