WASHINGTON, the USA (BulgarianMilitary.com), June 27, 2018, Author: Bm Team, Photo credit: Senior Airman Armando A. Schwier-Morales/U.S. Air Force

The Royal Bahraini Air Force will receive sixteen new F-16 fighter jets from Lockheed Martin under a $1.12 billion contract, learned BulgarianMilitary.com.

Lockheed Martin announced that on Monday, 25th June 2018. The deal makes Bahrain the first country that procures the latest F-16V Block 70 configuration of the fourth-generation, multirole fighter, which involves the advanced AN/APG-83 active electronically scanned array radar, which “delivers greater situational awareness, flexibility and quicker all-weather targeting” and provides “digital map displays that can be tailored with slew and zoom features” as stated by Lockheed Martin.

The latest F-16 aircraft also features capability and structural upgrades.

Susan Ouzts, VP of Lockheed Martin’s F-16 program, commented, “We value our long-standing relationship with the Kingdom of Bahrain and look forward to beginning production activities on their first Block 70 aircraft at our facility in Greenville. This sale highlights the significant, growing demand we see for new production F-16s around the globe.”

The sixteen aircrafts will be manufactured at Lockheed’s new production line in Greenville, South Carolina, and it will be the first F-16 production program to be implemented there.

The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a single-engine supersonic all-weather multirole fighter originally developed by General Dynamics (now Lockheed Martin) for the U.S. Air Force. Although the U.S. Air Force does not purchase F-16 aircrafts any more, upgraded variants are being manufactured for export customers like Bahrain.

BulgarianMilitary.com