Tuesday, July 7, 2009

PAF F-16s Being Upgraded



Turkish Aerospace Industries, Inc (TAI), which is Turkey’s centre of aerospace, has acquired an international success by signing a contract regarding the modernisation of PAF F-16s. Under the programme, the financial dimension of which is around US$75 million, a total of 42 F-16A/Bs will be upgraded at TAI’s facilities in 46 months starting from October 2010. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), regarding the start of proposal process of PAF F-16 Modernisation Programme, was signed between TAI and PAF during the IDEAS Defence Exhibition in September 2006 in Karachi, Pakistan. Being invited to the international bid for the PAF's F-16 Modernisation Programme, TAI, among other European competitors, was announced as the main contractor of the programme following the final evaluation by Pakistani authorities in July 2008. Following the negotiations, which started in 2009 between TAI and Pakistan authorities, and the mutual agreement, the contract was signed between TAI and Pakistan's Ministry of Defence Production on June 29, 2009 at a ceremony held in Rawalpindi. In 2006, as a result of another bidding process, TAI, which had signed an agreement with the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) for the modernisation of RJAF F-16A/Bs, has since successfully completed the programme with the delivery of the last aircraft in April 2009.--Prasun K. Sengupta

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi Prasun,
I saw your article on stealth su-30 MKI,please give me further details if you know about it.
Thanx

Anonymous said...

to prasun

which radar these f16 getting,there is also sabr aesa radar available to be retrofitted to older f16 as well

and as for stealthy su30 you posted that pic of su30 with internal bays,is that pic is shown on paris air show this yearor it was shown on 2 years ago

ABHINABA said...

Prasun da, will those 42 F-16A/Bs modernize to block 50/52 standard ?
Some media reports indicats that those moernized F-16s will be equipped with AIM-9X /MICA combination.Is it true?
Now, please inform us the whole modernisation programme of PAF in detail.

Anonymous said...

"I saw your article on stealth su-30 MKI"
what? did i miss something?

Anonymous said...

^^^you missed the latest issue of FORCE

Prasun K Sengupta said...

Will shortly upload technical data and systems installation templates of the EL/M-2032, Kopyo, Zhuk-ME, APG-66 and APG-68. The last two radars are, by the way, non-monopulse radars and are on board the PAF's F-16A/B and F-16C/D Block 52. The TAI-led upgrade for the F-16A/B is for the communications and defensive aids suites only. The APG-66 radar stays the same. After the upgrade, the F-16A/Bs will be able to fire the AIM-7M Sparrow and AIM-9S Sidewinder AAMs only.

Prasun K Sengupta said...

To Anon@3.21PM: The stealthy airframe for both the Su-30MKI and Su-35BM were designed by Sukhoi OKB and an artist's conception was released furing MAKS 2007 showing the airframe with redesigned air intakes and a conformal underbelly weapons station. A full-scale model was also built subsequently on which RCS-related operations analysis is still underway. The targetted date for introducing such modifications is 2014.

Anonymous said...

Thanks a lot Prasun,It was totally a new news for me about stealth skin for Su-30MKI...

ABHINABA said...

Thanx.
Can you inform me about the total no. of F-16C/D that are now operated by PAF?

Prasun K Sengupta said...

TO ABHINABA: None. They will start arriving in June 2010.

Anonymous said...

Prasum,

if you say that the TAI upgrade is only for communications and defensive suite, do you have any information about the other upgrades? like Falcon Star upgrade and that of radar, etc?

who is doing it and when?