NEW DELHI The pride of Pakistan’s Air Force: the feet of US supplied F-16 “Fighting Falcons” may be grounded soon following discovery of cracks in army such aircraft in the U.S and with its allies, defense experts say.

This may complicate matters for the PAF, which was reportedly facing problems of spare parts for its 50-0dd F-16A/F-16B fighters due to the stoppage of U.S. military aid following the Pressler amendment, experts at the institute for defense studies and analyses (IDSA) said.

Further it was reported in July this year that the US Air Force had grounded all F-16aircraftequipped with Pratt and Whitney F100- PW229 engines after a series of engine for its F- 16’s.

Immediate impact of grounding the F-16 would be felt by the waning programs of the PAF which include annual training or training of experienced pilots.

Even though Pakistan has acquired certain facilities for overhauling, F-16’s in the case of cracking of the airframe, Pakistan requires the help of its manufacturer, General Dynamics. Here the Pressler ‘Amendment would come in to force and its needs to be seen whether the US will consider helping Pakistan in carrying out major structural changes and recruits.

Experts say weight added to the aircraft over the years during an evolutionary conversion of the F- 16’s role from that of a high-altitude air superiority fighter to a close air support aircraft may have contributed to the cracking.

The weight of the aircraft has increased from 10206 KG in block 15 to 12202 in block 30 using the same basic airframe. Most of the increased weight was in avionics units, engines and structural changes.

They also said that in addition to the added weight, the F-16s have ‘been flown in conditions that exert more stress on the structure than those envisioned when the aircraft was designed.

The experts said this includes fight at higher speeds, lower altitudes and in air-to-ground

Weapons delivery regimes, all of which increase the pace at which the air- frames would develop cracks.

Air to- ground missions generally stress the tail structure while air-to-air-missions stress the wing.

The most serious areas requiring structural upgrade are the wing carry-through bulkhead, wing up- per skin and engine mounts, the weekly said.

The less serious at least affected are the vertical tail base structure, leading edge flap actuator attach points and fuselage; components. ‘The F-16 was developed in 1972 in connection with the light weight fighter programed and one of the ‘goals of the program me was to, reverse the trend of ever growing complexity, weight and costs in new fighter aircraft designs.

The first combat use of the F-16 was by the Israeli Air Force, which used eight aircraft is to destroy Iraq’s Osaka nuclear reactor in 1981. ‘Since then, the fighting falcon has proved its worth during the recent Gulf war experts said.

Article extracted from this publication >> October 4, 1991