- Yes
- No
- As an event vehicle
- As a premium vehicle
- As a tech tree vehicle
- I voted No
History of how Turkey got a hand of F-16’s
Türkiye’s F-16 adventure began in the early 1980s with the aim of replacing the Lockheed F-104 Starfighter and Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter used in fighter/intercept missions in the Air Force, The government of the time announced in September 1983 that it would be purchasing F-16s designed by General Dynamics from the United States through the Foreign Military Sales method within the scope of the Peace Onyx I Program. Eight of these F-16s (six of them F-16D Block 30 and two F-16C Block 30) would be manufactured at General Dynamics’ Fort Worth facilities in the United States. Two of these eight aircraft would be disassembled and assembled at the TAI facilities established in Akıncı, Ankara. The first F-16 (86-0068) assembled at TAI facilities made its first flight on October 14, 1987, under test pilot Şener Koltuk. Of the 160 aircraft ordered under the Öncel Peace-I Program, 34 were F-16C Block 30, 8 were F-16D Block 30, 102 were F-16C Block 40 and 15 were F-16D Block 40, and 154 of these aircraft were assembled at TAI facilities…
Brief explanation of the F-16C Block 30 “Özgür”
F-16C Block 30 “Özgür” also meaning “Freedom” is a turkish modification of the aging F-16 Block 30’s. It was built to be on par with the F-16 Block 70. It has a new locally built radar and is being used and tested on new vehicles such as the Kızılelma, Kaan, and the Akıncı. The plane itself also has a new IFF, New avionics, a colored MFD, integration of locally built missiles, T-Link (Data link), and the ASELPOD already being used by the JF-17 in game.
Statistics of the F-16C Block 30 “Özgür”
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Engine: General Electric F110-GE-100 turbofan, rated at 17,155 lb.s.t. dry and 28,984 lb.s.t. with afterburning.
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Radar: Murad 100-A Aesa Radar has an approximate range of 93 kilometers using the available information on the radar graph provided below and processing it on radar calculation sites and AI.
Weaponry:
- Cannon:
- M61 Vulcan
- Heat Seeking Missiles
- Merlin
- AIM-9X
- AIM-9M
- Radar guided Missiles
- AIM-120C-7/
- AIM-120B
- Peregrine
- AIM-120C-7/
- Guided and Dumb bombs:
- JDAM
- Mark 81, 82, 83 and 84 Bombs.
- GBU-10 and 12
- Air to Ground Missiles:
- AGM-65G
- Also includes AGM-65A and B
- AGM 88B and E
- AGM-65G
Radar Abilities and History
Named after Sultan Murad I ‘the devotee of God’. The Murad 100-A Nose Radar was first showcased in IDEF 2021, with plans for integration on both the AKINCI UCAV and F-16C and D aircraft. Development efforts began as early as 2018.
A/A
- Long range search
- Tracking while searching
- Multiple target tracking
- Intermediate stage guidance
- Raid Detection
- Weather change
- Air combat maneuvering
A/G
- Strip SAR
- Spot SAR
- Ground mapping
- Moving ground target detection and tracking
- Maritime search and ISAR
- Air-ground ranging
- Doppler beam sharpening
- Automatic altitude determination
Radar Capabilities
- Multi-function radar
- Simultaneous air-to-air and air-to-ground missions
- Non-cooperative target identification
- Automatic target recognition
- Jamming resistance
- Electronic support
- Electronic attack
Domestic missiles
Turkish domestic missile production first started in 1960s. When a missile called Marmaray-1 first was launched climbing 1000 meters before igniting itself and exploding. The 2nd missile was called Marmaray-2 and it surpassed Marmaray 1 by travelling 15 kilometers and climbing 833 meters more, almost making to 2000 meters. But after the engineer’s house mysteriously burnt down the domestic turkish missile projects paused and eventually stopped until only recently. With TUBITAK-SAGE expected to develop 4 different types of missiles. Under the name of GÖKTUĞ, the first 2 missiles of the project being MERLIN FOX-2 missile and PEREGRINE FOX-3 missiles.
Merlin
Merlin is a turkish IR missile. It was produced due to acquisition problems regarding the aim 9X. It was first produced in 2019 and was used against a high speed drone in the altitudes of 4000 meters. It has thrust vectoring and is guesstimated to be faster than Mach 4. It also uses an IIR seeker which maximizes the probability of kill. It also uses a reduced smoke motor.
Video of Merlin being shot at the High Speed Target Drone.
One in the back is Merlin and the other AAM is Peregrine
Peregrine
Peregrine is a Turkish Active Radar Homing (FOX-3) missile built to replace the AIM-120’s in the turkish inventory. Also being built by TUBITAK SAGE. The missile seeker itself has an Smart Radio Frequency seeker with fire and forget capability. It uses ECCM and has a Home-on jamming system. It also maximizes Probability of kill like on the MERLIN, The missile also uses Data link and is expected to have a range of 65km and 100km varying on the source.
Video of Peregrine being shot at a High Speed Target Drone
Contents of the modernization package
Spoiler
(This is the highest quality image i could find)
Spoiler
Sources for the F-16C:
https://www.savunmasanayist.com/milli-aesa-burun-radari-ilk-kez-f-16-ozgur-ile-uctu/
MURAD F-16 Aktif Faz Dizili Anten (AESA) Burun Radarı – Millisavunma.com
Sources for the Missiles and Weaponry
https://www.defenceturk.net/gokdogan-hava-hava-fuzesinin-menzili-100-kmye-guncellendi
https://www.savunmasanayist.com/tubitak-sage-air-to-air-missile-projects-continues-successfully/
https://www.savunmasanayist.com/gokdogan-ve-bozdogan-artik-turk-ordusunun-emrinde/
List of equipment of the Turkish Air Force - Wikipedia
(I don’t like using wikipedia as a source but i cant find sources for the weaponry it can carry so i estimated what the modernized F-16C would be using)
Sources for the Radar
F-16 AESA Burun Radarı MURAD Tanıtıldı - Defence Turkey Magazine
MURAD 100-A - ASELSAN
https://www.veryansintv.com/yazar/beyazit-karatas/kose-yazisi/dikkat-kizilelma-cikabilir
I’ll now be finishing this suggestion with the quote of the founder of modern day Turkish Republic
↓↓↓
Spoiler
The future is in the skies. Nations that cannot protect their skies can never be sure of their future.
