F-16 Fighting Falcon

Originally designed by General Dynamics the Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is a successful fly-by-wire multirole fighter purchased for the USAF to replace it's old Republic F-105 Thunderchief fighters whose extreme maintenance requirements and excessive loss rates in Vietnam had effectively rendered the aircraft obsolete.


The design of the F-16 Fighting Falcon is smaller, lighter and most importantly cheaper than it's main contempories, the F14 and F15 fighters, and therefore allows it to be fielded in grater numbers at less cost, an attractive option if the enemy is not itself fielding true state of the art fighters. The Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon is well liked by it's flight-crew who have nicknamed the aircraft the "Viper" after the imaginary fighter in the "Battlestar Galactica" film and series, the fighter has in fact proven so successful that it has been built under licence in no less than seven different countries.


Lockheed Martin F-16C Specifications:


Crew: Pilot only
Length: 49 ft 5 in (14.8 m)
Wingspan: 32 ft 8 in (9.8 m)
Height: 16 ft (4.8 m)
Empty weight: 18,200 lb (8,270 kg)
Max takeoff weight: 42,300 lb (19,200 kg)
Engine: Single 23,770 lbf (105.7 kN) Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 or 28,600 lbf (128.9 kN) General Electric F110-GE-100 afterburning turbofan
Maximum speed: Mach 2+ (1,500 mph, 2,414 km/h)
Combat radius: 340 NM (295 mi, 550 km)
Service ceiling 50,000 ft (15,239 m)
Rate of climb: 50,000 ft/min (254 m/s)
Armament:


Guns: Single 20 mm (0.787 in) M61 Vulcan gatling gun
Rockets: 2¾ in (70 mm) CRV7
Air-to-air missiles: Twin AIM-7 Sparrow or Six AIM-9 Sidewinder or Six AIM-120 AMRAAM or Six Python-4
Air-to-ground missiles: Six AGM-45 Shrike or six AGM-65 Maverick or four AGM-88 HARM
Anti-ship missiles: Twin AGM