“This exciting new capability increases the quality of operational training. This is the first such contract placed in the United Kingdom, although a similar service is currently being delivered by Draken International and other contractors to the United States Air Force. The Royal Air Force awarded a six-year contract to Draken to provide aggressor aircraft to support the training of Typhoon and F-35B pilots, replicating the tactics, techniques and procedures of potential adversaries. After some reductions, the current program’s first phase features a little less than 9,000 flight sorties at six bases for the first year and an optional three year-extension for a total of over 26,000 flight sorties.Draken’s L-159Es will take over the aggressor role of the recently retired Hawk T1 fleet.
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The F-16s are considered a step further toward an improved contracted threat replication, as they are 4th gen aircraft and thus more modern and capable compared to the ones currently used in this role.Īs we already extensively explained in past articles here at The Aviationist, the original Combat Air Force/Contracted Air Support (CAF/CAS) multi-award contract, was announced to cover 40,000 flight hours of adversary training at 12 different air bases and 10,000 flight hours is support of Joint Terminal Attack Controllers (JTAC) training at nine Army bases. The Vipers will join the fleets of Mirage F-1s, L-159s Honey Badger and A-4s Skyhawk already operated by the company to support the Combat Air Force/Contracted Air Support program. Armed Forces, after the Canadian company Top Aces started receiving the F-16s acquired from the Israeli Air Force this year. Both countries also installed some customized systems on top of the MLU upgrade, which might be the ones that will be removed before the transfer to the US company.įollowing these contracts, Draken International will become the second company to provide contracted F-16 for the training of the U.S.
#Draken jet update#
In their current configuration, the F-16s sold to Draken were initially delivered in the Block 1 configuration and later upgraded up to the Block 20 Mid Life Update configuration, with capabilities considered comparable to the F-16C Block 50/52 configuration.
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The aircraft are expected to be refurbished before the delivery and accompanied by their support equipment. It will also be interesting to see which systems will be removed from these F-16s before the transfer, how they will be modified after the delivery and eventually the adversary paint scheme they will be given. (Photo: RNoAF)Īt this time of writing, it is unknown if the two deals with Draken International only include single-seat F-16As or, more probably, also dual-seaters F-16Bs. File photo of a Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16B in flight. Other than Draken, the government is looking to sell as many of the remaining F-16s as possible to allied countries. As for the Netherlands, only one RNoAF unit is still operating the Viper, the 331 skv at Bodø Air Base. Regarding for the Norwegian contract, the Forsvarsmateriell (Norwegian Defense Material Agency) has been working since 2019 to decide what to do with the Royal Norwegian Air Force F-16s as they get retired this month and fully replaced by the F-35. Draken has also been offered the option to acquire an additional 28 F-16s from these batches.
#Draken jet full#
The remaining F-16s will be retired in batches from 2022 to 2024/2025, when the F-35 is expected to reach the Full Operational Capability and take over the roles of the F-16. The squadron is the last unit to operate the Viper as the other squadrons are gradually moving to the F-35 Lightning II.
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The F-16 is currently operated in the RNLAF by only one unit, the 312 Squadron at Volkel Air Base. The Falcons will come out of the F-16 End Life of Type (ELOT) program after the Dutch retire their F-16s starting in 2022. 29, 2021, that an interdepartmental Defense Materiel Sales Committee, consisting of representatives of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defence, approved the sale of 12 F-16s to Draken International. As we reported earlier this year, the Dutch Parliament was informed on Jun. The sale of the Royal Netherlands Air Force F-16s was already expected. The exact timeline is not yet known as the transfer has to be first approved by U.S., Dutch and Norwegian authorities and some classified systems need to be removed before the aircraft can be delivered to Draken. The company is set to receive 12 aircraft from each country as they get retired from 2022. The 24 Vipers will join the company’s fleet of fighter jets used for the Combat Air Force/Contracted Air Support (CAF/CAS) program in the US.ĭraken International announced last week two contracts to acquire a fleet of second-hand F-16 Fighting Falcons from the Netherlands and Norway.