The $4.5 billion “Peace Phoenix Rising” program to upgrade 139 of Taiwan’s F-16s to the F-16V (Block 70-72) configuration is complete, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center announced Feb. 5. The next step in the boost of Taiwan’s air defenses is to deliver 66 new-build F-16s in a comparable configuration, expected within the next two to three years.
The upgrade gives Taiwan’s F-16s a capability equivalent or superior to those of most U.S. Air Force F-16s. The program is intended to help deter the People’s Republic of China from a military assault on Taiwan.
The last “Viper”-upgraded jet was delivered in December after final checks, AFLCMC said. The Taiwanese Air Force, officially known as the Republic of China Air Force, commissioned its first operational wing of F-16Vs in November 2021.
“This massive upgrade,” as AFLCMC described it, provided Taiwanese F-16s with the Northrop Grumman-built AN/APG-83 Active Electronically-Scanned Array radar, the Sniper targeting pod, Link 16, a helmet-mounted cuing system, precision GPS navigation, capability for advanced weapons, an upgraded modular mission computer, an ethernet high speed data network, a new center cockpit pedestal display, and heavyweight landing gear.
“Additional modifications to the aircraft include a slew of structural upgrades to the wings, fuselage and landing gear that make the aircraft more capable and sustainable. It also allows for a heavier takeoff as well as increased landing weight,” said Nathan Frock, AFLCMC’s acting security assistance program manager for the Taiwan F-16 retrofit program.
The upgrade program began in 2016 and the first completed aircraft was delivered in late 2018. Peace Phoenix Rising is the largest F-16 FMS retrofit program since the F-16 was inducted into the U.S. Air Force in 1979, AFLCMC said. Taiwan bought 150 F-16A/Bs in 1992; most of those were upgraded under Peace Phoenix. The upgrade was originally supposed to cover 144 aircraft, but there have been attrition losses since the original request.
Taiwan requested the Block 70 upgrade and new-jet sale after being rebuffed from buying F-35s.
The completion of the program comes on the heels of a letter from 24 U.S. lawmakers to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall in November 2023, urging the service to expedite the program’s conclusion and press quickly ahead with the follow-on $8 billion purchase of 66 new F-16Vs approved by Congress in 2019. They noted that the upgrades were running behind schedule and the new-build fighters were delayed by at least two and maybe three years.
“We still consider these FMS cases to be high-risk,” the lawmakers said. The members said the two FMS cases—the upgrade and new-build F-16 sales—were “impacted from their earliest inception by optimistic assumptions about how rapidly new technology and modifications might be integrated” into the F-16 design.
“Taiwan urgently needs these new and upgraded aircraft, and a stronger, more resilient Taiwan will improve stability across the Taiwan Strait,” they said.
Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter replied that the service is exploring “all options to prioritize and expedite” the transfer of new F-16Vs to Taipei.
Although the first two new jets were supposed to be delivered in late 2023, that did not happen; the delay was chalked up by the Air Force and Lockheed Martin to “complex developmental challenges” in developing new software for the fighter. Industry sources now say Taiwan should get its first F-16 Block 70 in the third quarter of 2024.
In their letter to Kendall, the lawmakers urged that the Air Force not make “similarly optimistic assumptions from manifesting in the future. We cannot afford to over-promise and under-deliver to our closest friends.”
President Joe Biden’s administration has pledged to speed up the Foreign Military Sales process, and last week reported that 2023 was a record year for FMS agreements, totaling $80.9 billion, a 55 percent increase over fiscal 2022.
Unlike earlier F-16s, which had about an 8,000-hour service life, newly built F-16Vs will have a 12,000-hour service life.
Aerospace Industry Development Center (AIDC) was Lockheed’s subcontractor in Taiwan. Together, the two companies designed and built Taiwan’s indigenous F-CK-1 Ching Kuo, or Indigenous Defense Fighter, 130 of which were delivered in the 1990s. The jets are considered to have a capability between the Northrop F-5E, which Taiwan also flies, and the F-16. Taiwan’s air force also includes Dassault Mirage 2000s, some of which may be life-extended due to delays in delivering the F-16Vs.
AFLCMC said it’s now working on a second phase of the upgrade project—Peace Phoenix Rising Modernization II—which will add capability for the AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM), an automatic ground collision avoidance system, the MS-110 multispectral reconnaissance pod, and the AGM-154 Joint Stand-Off Weapon (JSOW).
“We know this work is not done, as we continue to accelerate capability upgrades to the Taiwan Air Force’s existing F-16 fleet, but successfully accomplishing this key milestone is definitely worth highlighting,” said Col. Eddie Wagner, AFLCMC’s F-16 FMS Senior Materiel Leader.
Taiwan was also approved for $500 million worth of infrared search and track systems for the F-16s last August. The Legion IRST systems are considered essential to helping fourth-generation fighters like the F-16 spot aircraft with a low radar cross section, like China’s J-20.
“I am extremely proud of how all stakeholders involved with this [Peace Phoenix Rising] critical modification were able to overcome so many obstacles, including the COVID-19 pandemic, to deliver all 139 retrofitted aircraft by the end of 2023,” said Wagner. “We know the work is not done as we continue to accelerate capability upgrades to the Taiwan Air Force’s existing F-16 fleet, but successfully accomplishing this key milestone is definitely worth highlighting.”
Lockheed has at least six customers for the Lockheed F-16V/Block 70 and delivered Slovakia’s first two in January. Company officials say they are aiming at production of up to 36 F-16s per year by the end of 2024 and 48 per year by the end of 2025 from Lockheed’s Greenville, S.C., plant, where F-16 production moved from Fort Worth, Texas several years ago. However, at these rates, it will be challenging to deliver all of Taiwan’s new F-16Vs by 2026.
O.J. Sanchez, integrated fighter group vice president and general manager at Lockheed, said the company sees substantial F-16 upgrade opportunities, with more than 3,000 F-16s flying around the world. Greece, for example, has accepted more than 10 F-16s upgraded to the V configuration out of 84 expected to be delivered by 2027.