<p >Testifying before the U.S. Senate Committee on Armed Services on May 20, Chief of Staff of the Air Force General David Allvin was questioned regarding the possibility of the service procuring an enhanced new variant of the F-16 fighter. Chairman of the Senate Republican Conference and chair of the Senate Intelligence Committee Senator Thomas Cotton raised the possibility of such procurements, asking: “Focusing on just the next decade, then, our current acquisition options are pretty limited. Would you be able to use newly built U.S.-configured Block 80 F-16s to strengthen our strike fighter fleet, if Congress can find additional funds for such an effort?” Allvin responded: “Looking at what that would be to take that export variant and adapt it to a Block 80, and the time it would take, and where that would fall in the production line, I’d have to get back with you with more details to see if that would be an advisable situation.” “I’d really have to look at what the defence industrial base can do on that, because my sense is that the current Block 70 is really eating up a lot of production lines and production capacity and all the FMS [Foreign Military Sales],” he added. The first<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/republic-china-air-force-receives-first-f16-block70" target="_blank"> F-16 Block 70/72 fighter </a>was <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/latest-f16-pentagon-no-want" target="_blank">unveiled</a> in November 2022, with the fighter class having been developed exclusively for export. The ageing fourth generation fighter class was modernised with fifth generation level avionics, and uses a superior airframe built with modern composite materials.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/21/article_682d2fe35634f2_93181829.jpg" title="F-16D Block 70 First Production Fighter"></p><p >The U.S. Air Force ceased procurement of the F-16 in 2005, and previously planned to procure <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/f35-fails-improve-delays-performance-issues-software-deficiencies" target="_blank">F-35A fifth generation fighters</a> to facilitate a phasing out of the fleet. The F-16 is second oldest fighter in the world in its longevity in production, and first entered service in the U.S. Air Force 47 years ago in 1978. Although the design has been enhanced significantly over time, it has still widely been referred to by both U.S. and overseas defence officials as obsolete for high intensity engagements against advanced adversaries. A primary factor that has led the possibility of resumed F-16 procurements to be raised is the major shortcomings that have hindered the F-35 program, in particular its major overruns in both procurement and operational costs which have made acquisitions on the scale previously envisaged wholly unaffordable. While the F-35 was initially intended to have similar operational costs to the F-16, allowing the Air Force to procure close to 1800 of the fighters, the fighter’s lifetime costs are by some estimates close to double those of an F-16.&nbsp;</p><p ><img src="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/m/articles/2025/05/21/article_682d3007417cf5_96551536.jpg" title="F-16 (top) and F-35"></p><p >Aside from the issue of costs, F-35’s maintenance requirements have also resulted in very <a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/lawmakers-impatient-f35-55pct-rates" target="_blank">low availability rates</a> within the fleet, while those of the F-16 have been among the highest. A resumption of procurements of ageing fourth generation fighters due to deficiencies with their fifth generation successors would be far from unprecedented. The Air Force previously made the controversial decision to resume procurements of F-15 fighters in 2020, 19 years after it had ceased to do so, after the F-22 designed to succeed the F-15 suffered from<a href="https://militarywatchmagazine.com/article/25-f22-maiden-flight-looks-like-failure" target="_blank"> severe deficiencies</a> and cost overruns. Analysts have long speculated that a primary reason the Air Force has avoided resuming F-16 procurements, despite an urgent need for larger numbers of more affordable fighters, is that this could shake international clients’ confidence in the F-35 program, which has otherwise been a major export success. The F-35 and an enhanced F-16 could prove to be highly complementary as a high-low pairing, with F-16s deploying beyond visual range cruise missiles from outside the range of enemy defences, while F-35s are relied on to operate further forward. F-16s could also prove invaluable for engaging less well defended targets in lower intensity war zones, allowing the F-35 fleet to be conserved for engagements with higher end threats. Major shortcomings of the F-16 relative to the F-35 include their lack of stealth capabilities, shorter ranges, much smaller radars, and lack of comparable electronic warfare suites.</p>
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