- Yes
- No
Description: The story of the F16’s in Italy began before 2000 in the 90’s, when Italy had in service a lot of F104 S, ASA, and ASA M that were planned to be replaced with the Eurofighter Thypoon, but the project and the construction of the EFA were very slow, and for that reason Italy asked some nations to lease some fighter aircraft to stop the gap between the withdrawal of the Starfighter and the entry into service of the Eurofighter. The first nation was Britain which agreed to lease 24 Tornado ADV aircraft. When the leasing program ended, it was intended to lease the ADV for 10 additional years, but the cost was too high, and the project was cancelled. The second nation that accepted the leasing projects for Italy was the USA. In 2003, a contract was signed for 5 years (plus 5 more additional years if needed) for 34 F16 Falcon. The program was worth a total of 777 million dollars, and the estimated duration was 10 years. Were delivered a total of 1 BLock 1B + 26 A Blocks (15 ADF) + 1 Block 15 B + 2 Block 5 B + 1 Block 10 B + 4 Block 10A. The story of 4 Italian Block 10 A is a little bit strange and little known. Those aircraft were delivered first as reserve aircraft, and then they were used to gain spare parts for the other aircraft in service. When the 4 Block 10 aircraft were delivered, they were fully completed, but it was decided to use them to gain spare parts, so after a very short amount of time, the 4 aircraft were not able to fly and they were disassembled. The four aircraft were integrated into the logistics and sustenance of the currently in service Block 15 ADF. Talking about itself, the engine was the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 with a total of 127 kn of thrust that gave the aircraft a maximum speed of 2156 km/h and a maximum service ceiling of 18000 meters. The radar is the AN/ANPG 66, and it was able to carry a total of 60 countermeasures.About the armaments, it was able to carry the same weapons as the F16 A Block 10 already in the game.
Why it should be in the game: Despite after the arrive in Italy they were disassembled , when they arrived they were fully completed. An aircraft like this will help a lot the Italian TT since there are a very limited number of multi-role and cas aircraft, and it will be a lot easy to model since it is a**
copy paste.
Specifications:
Spoiler
Armaments:
Spoiler
20 mm Vulcan rotary cannon
6x AIM9L
6x AIM9L/I1
6x AGM65 Maverik
4x GBU8
19x MK82
19x MK82 snakeye
4x MK84 LDGP Air
4x MK84
114x Mighty Mouse rokets dispenser
6x BLU27
Big Thanks to @S__bastienZ88 for all the help!
Sources:
Spoiler
F-16.net - The ultimate F-16, F-35 and F-22 reference
F-16.net - The ultimate F-16, F-35 and F-22 reference
F-16.net - The ultimate F-16, F-35 and F-22 reference
F-16.net - The ultimate F-16, F-35 and F-22 reference
80-0515.jpg • f-16 photography
F-16.net - The ultimate F-16, F-22, F-35 reference
Amarcord: gli F-16 Viper dell'Aeronautica Militare Italiana - Aviation Report
Book:
Coccarde Tricolori Speciale 7** **(Riccardo Nicoli) (RN Publishing)
Pictures:
The Aircrafts before being delivered to Italy
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