The acquisition of eight new production F-16 Block 70 aircraft for the Royal Jordanian Air Force (RJAF) is a major boost to its airpower. Jordan officially signed a Letter of Offer and Acceptance for the F-16 Block 70 aircraft in June.
“This F-16 acquisition reflects over 70 years of U.S. cooperation and decades of partnership with Lockheed Martin,” said Aimee Burnett, vice president, Integrated Fighter Group Business Development. “Our history partnering with Jordan strengthens regional security and helps protect citizens through 21st Century Security technologies that support critical missions today and into the future.”
The U.S. State Department had approved the foreign military sale of the F-16 C/D Block 70 Aircraft to Jordan in February. The RJAF aircraft will be powered by F100-GE-129D engines or F100-PW229EEP engines and also receive Northrop Grumman’s AN/APG-83 active electronically scanned array (AESA) scalable agile beam radars (SABR). This upgrade will keep the multirole F-16 fighter relevant and capable for decades to come.
The new AESA radars will allow RJAF pilots to detect, target, identify, and engage across a spectrum of threats at longer ranges and react with greater precision. The greater bandwidth, speed, and agility of Northrop Grumman’s APG-83 SABR enables the F-16 to detect, track and identify greater numbers of targets faster and at longer ranges. In addition, the radar can operate in hostile electronic environments and features all-weather, high-resolution synthetic aperture radar mapping, which presents the pilot with a large surface image enabling precision target identification and strike.
The APG-83 AESA provides substantial capability enhancements over legacy mechanically scanned APG-66 & APG-68 radars. According to Northrop Grumman, the new AESA radar offers 3-5X greater reliability and availability. The AN/APG-83’s design incorporates proven hardware and advanced operating modes from Northrop Grumman’s fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 AESA radars. The U.S. Air Force selected the APG-83 SABR as the AESA for its F-16 radar upgrade in June 2017.
Other equipment approved for sale by the U.S. Government to Jordan are the AN/AAQ-33 Sniper advanced targeting pods (ATP), Link 16 Low-Volume Terminals (for aircraft and ground stations), KMU-556 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits for 2,000LB GBU-31, KMU-572 JDAM tail kits for 500LB Laser JDAM GBU-54, Paveway II (PWII) GBU-10s, Joint Helmet Mounted Cueing System II (JHMCS II) or Scorpion Hybrid Optical-based Inertial Tracker (HObIT) helmet mounted displays; AN/ALQ-254 Viper Shield or equivalent Integrated Electronic Warfare (EW) systems, etc.
The proposed sale will improve Jordan’s capability to meet current and future threats by ensuring continued interoperability with U.S. and coalition forces. These aircraft will modernize the Jordanian fighter aircraft fleet and support operational requirements associated with regional U.S.-coalition goals, such as countering violent extremist organizations, countering malign state and non-state actors, and border defense. Jordan will have no difficulty absorbing this equipment into its armed forces.
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