Robert ‘Elvis’ Balserak of Lockheed Martin spoke to StratPost at DefExpo 2018 and explained in detail, exactly what their F-16 offer to India looks like.

The U.S. defence and aerospace company is offering the F-16 Block 70 in response to the Indian Air Force (IAF) Request For Information (RFI) for 110 fighter aircraft, issued last month. While the earlier Lockheed Martin F-16 offer for the IAF’s Medium Multi Role Combat Aircraft (MMRCA) contest was based on the Block 60, the Block 70 is an evolution of the Block 50 fighter variant.

Block 50 & Block 60 versus Block 70

Balserak first explained how the Block 70 was different from the previous Block 50 and Block 60 versions of the fighter.

“What makes a Block 70 a 70? Let’s start with structure first. So the Block 70, structurally, is based on a Block 50, with one exception. We’ve incorporated full-scale durability testing results into the design of the Block 70 to change the service life from 8000 hours to 12000 hours. So structurally, it is physically different from a Block 50,” he said.

‘Elvis’ explained further, “It is not a Block 60. A 60 is only operated by one customer (U.A.E.) and there are specific structural differences between a 50, a 60 and a 70. It was specifically designed for that customer and specifically designed to accommodate a GE-132 engine. It was also designed to house a customer-unique electronic warfare and radar suite — liquid-cooled AESA radar.”

“If you look at the U.A.E. customer’s airplane, you’ll see that it’s got air scoots and pumps that aren’t present in normal F-16s. And the reason those are there is to accommodate the electronic warfare suite and the liquid cooling for the AESA radar,” he said.

Paint-job

The Block 70 also has a distinctive paint-job called Uniform HAVEGLASS that serves two purposes.

“One of the things they did on the Block 60s — was they did a coating on the Block 60 that’s got the texture of about 40 grit sandpaper — 60 grit sandpaper. It’s very, very rough. It was designed for RCS (Radar Cross Section) reduction. Since then for the Block 70 what we’ve done — from the exterior, if you look at the normal F-16 — most of the world’s F-16s — although they have country-unique paint jobs and in this case we made up an Indian paint-job, one of the thing the United States Air Force — particularly our Air National Guard, has started to implement is this coating called Uniform HAVEGLASS,” said Balserak.

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