The Air Force is weighing buying a new U.S variant of the modernized F-16 Fighting Falcon, several sources have told Inside Defense, opening the possibility of adding more of the jets to the domestic military fleet.
Block 70 F-16s, which are currently only made by Lockheed Martin for foreign partners, could fill capability gaps as aircraft age out at a lower cost than replacing the service’s legacy jets with the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, said one congressional aide, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss pre-decisional deliberations.
“They’ve explored pricing with [Lockheed Martin]. The Air Force has reached out to them about pricing, but nothing firm, just, like, as they look at their force structure plan in the future they’re trying to figure out how they’re going to plug their holes,” the staffer said. “I think they’re just trying to find whatever options are out there to figure out which ones are the best fit.”
As of now, the Air Force has no plans to procure F-16 Block 70s, a service spokesperson told Inside Defense. Plane-maker Lockheed Martin deferred all procurement inquiries to the government.
Lockheed currently produces Block 70 Fighting Falcons via foreign military sales for countries including Bahrain, Taiwan, Bulgaria, Morocco, Jordan and Slovakia out of its Greenville, SC facility. No such configuration of the more modern Fighting Falcon is currently available for the United States.
The U.S. does however fly and maintain older Block 40/50/52 F-16s, which are being slowly replaced by F-35s before the jet’s planned retirement in the 2040s.
But, due to developmental challenges within the F-35 program which have delayed delivery of that fifth-generation fighter, some of those aging F-16s are instead on track to receive upgrades -- including a new electronic warfare suite -- to extend their service life.
The Block 70 jets could be a much cheaper option to fully replace the older F-16s than F-35s are, the congressional aide said, “but we don’t know yet.”
To procure the Block 70 F-16s, the Air Force and Lockheed must first negotiate the terms of a contract and develop a U.S.-specific operational flight plan -- the computer systems necessary to support U.S. avionics and weapons. Conversations right now are about whether this feat would be both cost-effective, align with new service Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach’s force design and add worthwhile capability to the service’s future fighter fleet, the sources said.
Regardless, there are critical benefits to padding the Air Force’s fighter capacity with the modernized F-16, a second congressional source told Inside Defense.
Beyond being less expensive, “Block 70s are a great capability, I mean it is a more advanced fourth-generation fighter, and it has a place” on the battlefield, this staffer said. “You can make an argument for Block 70s being a good, like, recap[italize] the [National] Guard kind of thing.”
Plus, the second staffer said, if the Block 70s directly replace an older F-16 squadron, the Air Force could save money in its military construction accounts and on training for pilots or maintainers since most of the infrastructure and skills would be transferable.
The Block 70 F-16s are additionally set apart from the older designs because they are integrated with more modern or fifth-generation characteristics. These include the ability to fly 4,000 hours longer than the aged Fighting Falcons and an already integrated upgraded electronic warfare package, according to the company’s website.
“I think they’re just exploring options right now,” the first staff member added. “Not having seen a [future years defense program], no one knows what the hell is going on.”
The idea is still largely pre-decisional and -- even if senior Air Force officials like it -- could not be present in the FYDP until at least fiscal year 2028 since the service has already completed its analysis for the FY-27 budget request, according to a service official.
If the Air Force does eventually decide to pursue the Block 70s, its efforts may still face trouble being bankrolled by Congress, the staffers cautioned.
The service would need to prove that buying an entirely new aircraft is a better option than simply doing incremental upgrades on aircraft the Air Force already has, they said, and officials would need to explain whether this plan takes money away from other major programs, like the F-35 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
This prospect comes as the Air Force appears to be dramatically shifting its vision over the next decade to max-procure aircraft like the F-15EX Eagle II, F-35A and F-47 Next Generation Air Dominance jets in the hundreds to meet homeland defense priorities, according to the service’s 10-year force structure report first obtained and reported by Inside Defense.
While the Air Force pursues the procurement of those in-production jets in greater numbers than previously anticipated, legacy aircraft will continue to modernize, the Air Force wrote in its October report. But some fighters “with limited utility” -- like older F-22 Raptors -- will be divested and replaced by squadrons of modern F-16s and F-15EX, the Air Force added, potentially pointing to a need down the road for the Block 70s.
“I’m happy that they finally care about capacity, it’s nice,” the second staffer said, “but I haven’t seen anything concrete.”