Lockheed Martin has been awarded a USD914 million contract to upgrade the Republic of Singapore Air Force's (RSAF's) F-16C/D Fighting Falcon aircraft, the US Department of Defense (DoD) announced on 1 December.
The DoD said that the fixed-price incentive and cost-plus contract, awarded under the US Foreign Military Sale (FMS) mechanism, is expected to be complete by June 2023. It added that the contract is the result of a sole-source acquisition managed by the United States Air Force's Life Cycle Management Center.
The DoD did not elaborate on the work to be included as part of the contract and the Singapore Ministry of Defence (MINDEF) said it was not planning to issue any statements about the contract award.
However, a DoD statement published in May announcing the USD130 million FMS sale of equipment to support the F-16 upgrade said the programme included the provision of 50 joint helmet-mounted cueing systems, 90 AN/APX-126 advanced identification friend or foe devices, and 150 LAU-129 missile launchers. Also included are 10 MK-82 500 lb and 3 MK-84 2000 lb inert bombs and kits for Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
A factsheet published by MINDEF in June said that the upgrade will also include the installation of an active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar, although this was not included in the list of equipment announced by the DoD in May. IHS Jane's has previously reported that the AESA radar requested by Singapore is the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar.
The RSAF operates 20 F-16C and 40 F-16D Block 52/52+ platforms, which were acquired from the late 1990s.
(Jane's)
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