Viper upgrades: it's about time!

Back in the days of the cold war, it was the policy of the US that they could only export aircraft technology that has either been downgraded or was of an older generation. Fast forward to today, and it appears that despite the F-16 and F-15 not being cutting edge, many other countries have been able to buy far more advanced F-16s and F-15s than ones that are in US service as of late.

A Hellenic Air Force F-16. Note those conformal fuel tanks on display.

Thankfully, the US Air Force has made the smart decision to purchase the F-15 2040C/F-15EX to replace the Aging Eagle fleet, but it seemed to take much longer to get around to accepting that the F-16 will need it's own upgrades to keep them flying, too. 

An article over at the The Drive The War Zone has an article on the details of the upgrades, which include a modern data link and communication suite to allow it to interface with the F-35s, a new AN/APG-83 SABR AESA radar, enhanced EW and counter measure suites (both internal and podded), along with with structural enhancements to increase flight time hours. These are all really great ideas for the little bird, but I feel they have a real missed opportunity there to really bring out the full potential of the airframe and reduce a majority of the other criticisms of the craft. 

I've been saying for years the AESA radar and enhanced EW was needed, but one of the biggest criticisms of the plane is that because it's a light fighter, it's range and payload have always been sub-par to say the least, and operational experience has proven that what is needed it a more medium to heavy fighter with long range and higher payload. Adding external tanks to the existing plane to try to rectify that also hampers performance while reducing payload.  So why not take this opportunity to add the 'ol cranked delta of the F-16XL on there and kick that sucker into high gear when it comes to both. 

Look at that capacity! All while reducing drag and increasing range at the same time!

Better yet, you can add divertless inlets to it to increase the subsonic thrust regime and possibly increase radome size, while also adding the conformal fuel tanks from the Block 70/72 series craft and you'll have a potent medium sized fighter that can go the distance of the heaviest of fighters, all while hauling around a crap-ton of ordnance. Thus you'll have a plane with no need for the external tanks that significantly reduce the payload and performance, that has significantly better performance and range while laden with bombs or other ordinance. 

The F-16 DSI proved it could be done easily and it helps thrust and fuel consumption 

The light fighter concept has been proven that it doesn't work for the US, so let's get what we actually need here and get our long range, high payload, faster fighters we need.

Also, all pics sourced from Wikipedia.