Indian F-16S

[comrade harps]

Lockheed Martin/HAL F-16S
4 Squadron, Indian Air Force
Miho , Japan
21 June, 2007



The plan had always been to replace the Indian Air Force's F-4G Wild Weasels with the Tornado ECR, but during the mid-1980s the Indian government took the cheaper option of ordering an F-4G SLEP instead, backed by the purchase of ex-USAF F-4Gs as attrition replacements. This proved to be problematic when, by the mid-1990s, wing cracks in the F-4G fleet forced several to be grounded. This lead to an F-4G replacement tender being issued in 1999. Among the industry proposals were the following:

• Boeing: F/A-18G Growler
• Canadair: Tornado ECI, an updated Tornado ECR using retired Canadian Tornado IDS airframes
• Dassault Canada: Rafale EC (Electronic Combat) two seater with  dorsal spine and conformal fuel tanks
• Globalfighter: Typhoon EC (Electronic Combat) two seater with  dorsal spine and conformal fuel tanks
• Lockheed Martin: F-16S (SEAD) two seater with  dorsal spine and conformal fuel tanks

Both the Rafale and Thyphoon lost out because of their long lead time, the Tornados because they were second hand (although highly common with India's own Tornado IDS force) and the Growler came a close second. As the Indian Air Force already operated F-16s and was in the process of upgrading their A and Bs to AM and BM MLU standard, the F-16S offered a degree of commonality with these and was selected to replace the F-4G. The type brought India's SEAD capability into the 21st century, with on-board jamming, much increased ISTAR capabilities, data links and EO/laser targeting pods (the LANTIRN nav and Sniper targeting pods were supplied) adding to the new AGM-88D HARM to make an aircraft able to cope with modern threats. For air-to-air work, AIM-120C AMRAAMs were supplemented by the Australia/Indian designed ASRAAM.




The F-16S' first combat deployment took place in June, 2007, in support of UN operations on the Korean Peninsula. Note the (hard to see in these photos) red three radar dish mission marking on the port canopy sill.

[GTX]

 

[NARSES2]

Thats nice 

[McColm]

Great model

[pyro-manic]

Very nice. The big spine and CFTs make the F-16 so much better looking IMO. Nice camo scheme too.

[Supertom]

That looks pretty good.  Which kit is that?

[comrade harps]

Which kit is that?

1:72nd Kinetic F-16I Sufa

Now its not on the short-list it's safe to make an Indian Viper.