Lockheed Martin and Air Force officials on March 26 completed the installation of new avionics gear on the 306th and final F-16 Block 40/42 aircraft to be upgraded at Odgen Air Logistics Center, Utah, under the common configuration implementation program. With this, the depot finished its portion of the CCIP work, having modernized 560 F-16s since 2001, including 254 F-16 Block 50/52s, Troy Mogck, Lockheed systems engineer in the CCIP program office there, told the Daily Report Tuesday. Overall, the Air Force is upgrading 651 F-16 Block 40/42s and Block 50/52s under CCIP, the largest F-16 modernization initiative to date. The new avionics increase aircraft lethality and harmonize the configuration of the two blocks to one standard. Work in Korea to upgrade Pacific Air Forces F-16s is expected to conclude in June, thereby completing all CCIP installations, said Mogck. (See Odgen’s March 25 report.)
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.