Polish Military Aviation Depot No.2, located in the city of Bydgoszcz, received the first US Air Force (USAF) F-16 Fighting Falcon fighter jet and will commence repairs on the aircraft.
It is the first of the USAF aircraft to be delivered from a $365 million contract signed in 2021. It will undergo its Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) in Poland.
“Military Aviation Depot No.2 in Bydgoszcz will be one of the few places in the world where F-16 fighters are serviced. It is a great success for Poland and our defense sector, which is the result of great cooperation with our American friends,” Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote in a Facebook post following the opening ceremony.
Polish Air Force F-16s have undergone maintenance at Bydgoszcz for more than a decade, with the facility also serving C-130 Hercules transport aircraft as well as Soviet-era MiG-29 and Sukhoi Su-22 jets.
The depot, which is a part of the government-controlled Polish Armaments Group holding, will conduct a SLEP overhaul and other kinds of maintenance on the USAF F-16C/D aircraft stationed in Europe.
Military Aviation Depot No.2 won the contract as part of a consortium with the Netherlands-based Daedalus Aviation Group and the US-based AAR Government Services. The contract includes services performed in all three countries at least until 2032, with the possibility of an extension.
As the F-4G Wild Weasel neared the end of its service life, the USAF implemented the concept of pairing ‘manned pylons’ (F-16Cs with HARM missiles) with the sensors of the F-4G as a hunter/killer team. The concept proved that the F-16C could cue and fire the HARM using directions sent from another platform. The downside was that the F-16 couldn’t carry the sensors of the F-4G since there was no space available inside the airframe.
The F-16CJ/DJ is a dedicated SEAD (Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses) aircraft with the HTS (HARM Targeting System) pod mounted under the starboard side of the intake and a pair of AGM-88 HARMs. The aircraft received improved engines in the form of the F110-GE-129 (Block 50) or F100-PW-229 (Block 52).
Source: aerotime.aero
