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.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.