The F-16 Fighting Falcon: America’s ULTIMATE Multirole Fighter

it's among the most capable warplanes the United States has ever added to its Arsenal blisteringly fast stunningly acrobatic and very very well armed the F-16 Fighting Falcon is a Workhorse like no other from its early years in development by General Dynamics at the height of the Cold War to its current standing as one of Lockheed Martin's most prized products the F-16 is Iconic a fighter aircraft as you are ever likely to find and by the end of its projected six decade service life it may well go down as one of the best all-round fighter aircraft in history So today we're going to dive into the story of the F-16 from its conception by the so-called fighter Mafia to its role in well over 25 Global Air Forces today foreign [Music] [Music] war was a brutal teacher for the American Military and among its many lessons was that air superiority and air-to-air combat generally was going to be of tantamount importance in the conflicts to follow few people knew this better than an Air Force Colonel named John Boyd who had done his best in the early 1960s to teach new pilots to adopt fighter tactics but it's in first hand the mismatch between what his Pilots would have to do to stay alive and what the aircraft at the time were capable of Boyd and mathematician named Thomas Christie had been responsible for developing what they called Energy maneuverability Theory basically a formula that quantifies things like thrust weight and drag and uses them to provide a metric for how well an aircraft performs overall but the simple fact that such a metric could exist naturally led to a follow-on question how could an aircraft be designed to max out those stats and perform as well and as consistently as was possible at any given time Boyd and Christy were part of a group colloquially known as The Fighter Mafia a reference to the so-called bomber Mafia who encouraged the use of long-range bombers in World War II despite strong opposition from elsewhere in the military the fighter Mafia of its day was facing a similar set of obstacles the Air Force was looking to shift its focus towards fighter aircraft that would be exclusively armed with missiles and that could reliably and safely avoid messing dogfights and other unfavorable combat conditions now today's sponsor is a fantastic one it is surf Shark look surfshark deals with a problem we all face even if we don't really know it and that's Internet Security love you ever found yourself at a Cozy Cafe you're Civic on a latte maybe a cappuccino maybe one of those fantasy drinks all the trimmings that I never order because they're really expensive and sweet but look you're having fun in the cafe you're on the internet but what if a hacker's lurking on that same Wi-Fi what if they've made a honey pot what if they're looking at all of your information well sir shark is your trusty VPN sidekick they keep you safe while you're enjoying that coffee keeping your online activities private and secure and look at other use 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you could try surf shark for 30 days with the money back guarantee no strings attached so use the promo code Mega at surfshark.deals forward slash Mega and you'll get a whopping 83 off and three months for free and now back to today's video the problem with that as Boyd Christy and the others saw it was that dogfights and the like weren't actually avoidable the conditions of actual combat were far more difficult than decision makers at the Air Force seem to believe and over Vietnam arm it was the pilots who were paying the price often being shot down in close quarters by aircrafts that just shouldn't have been able to compete with them Boyd and Christie's Theory clearly indicated that the new and improved fighter aircraft of the day were anything but they were too heavy and they weren't maneuverable enough to deal with aerial combat once it got a bit messy as the Air Force began coming around the realities of their situation they began work towards the F-15 Eagle which we have actually already covered at length in a separate video if you want to check it out but after you finish this one of course so yes sir also on the Air Force's wish list was a so-called Advance day fighter something they didn't feel they explicitly needed but something that it would be very nice to have a light highly maneuverable air superiority fighter but the advanced day fighter concept was dropped completely in 1967 when the U.S learned of the highly Advanced and bloody fast Soviet mig-25 Interceptor the fighter Mafia came into being around this time a small group of Defense analysts and Aviation experts who believed that a light fighter aircraft should still be on the Air Force's mind and that it should even be a top priority after months of lobbying they were able to secure a small budget from the Department of Defense for the General Dynamics and Northrop companies to try and present an aircraft that maximized its value under Boyd and Christie's theory in 1971 the Air Force prototype study group was established with the intent of receiving six competitive proposals for a fighter two of which would be funded and one of which would be the Air Force's new lightweight fighter aircraft the Air Force was specific in what precisely would be considered a winning candidate a successful day fighter would weigh about 20 000 pounds 9100 kilograms with the ability to quickly accelerate and turn as well as a long range and the ability to carry out combat Missions at speeds between Mach .6 and Mach 1.6 these missions would have to be carried out at an outs due to between 30 and 40 000 feet in the eventual production version would have to be procured for at or below a cost of 3 million dollars per unit all of these specifications Were Meant to focus attention on what the Air Force believed that the future of air-to-air combat would look like high altitude with the potential to be very high speed but still with the possibility of Close Quarters encounters and a clear intention to win them when they occurred the two finalists of the contest were the model 401 produced by General Dynamics and the P600 produced by Northrop both were awarded substantial contracts to pursue further testing and the Northrop model was given the moniker yf-17 while the General Dynamics model was dubbed the yf-16 the companies were given two years to produce a prototype and in response to resistance against the program coming from inside the Air Force they were given one additional guideline their eventual prototypes should be able to complement the more expensive F-15 fighter in a so-called high low mix this is a symbiotic Union between high-cost aircraft and low-cost ones now if you're curious about what the subtext on that is well the general idea was to reassure the air force that nobody was trying to replace its nice and shiny F5 Deans now the y-17 certainly does deserve some attention of its own but for the purposes of today's video we're gonna have to focus singularly on the Y of 16. it was developed by a team led by Robert Henry Widmer a brilliant if somewhat difficult to work with engineer who'd Been instrumental in designing the B-36 Peacemaker The b-58 Hustler and the F-111 Aardvark it took a bit over a year to take the yf-16 from designed flyable prototype but by December of 1973 their plane was ready it got off to a rather inauspicious start during early testing it took its first flight completely unintentionally during a high-speed taxi where test pilot Phil ostricher had commanded the plane to oscillate to the left and right as it reached about 120 knots the yf-16 was the first aircraft to feature a fixed joystick and the test pilot had been able to familiarize himself with that sort of design prior to the test so he accidentally scraped the tail against the runway as the aircraft nose unexpectedly went up the plane began to fall to the side with a high risk of impact in the ground so austrika decided to attempt to save the plane by taking off luckily for him and for the entire program he was able to get the plane in the air regain control and landed again six minutes later with this crisis narrowly averted the wife 16 took a proper First Flight a few weeks later when ostrica again took the controls and brought it to an altitude of 30 000 feet and a top speed of 400 miles per hour before bringing it back to the ground before long then despite some other early tweaks and changes the Prototype was taking to the sky regularly and proving exactly what it could do the two yf-16 prototypes were soon flying at twice the speed of sound hitting nine G's during Maneuvers and flying well over 10 miles above the ground in head-to-head tests it outperformed each of the Air Force's current fighters in the relevant areas as well as mig-17 and mig-21 blames that the Air Force had gone Hands-On now the Air Force was still hesitant to adopt either the Y of 16 or 17 but internationally the program already had interest from several buyers Belgium Denmark the Netherlands Norway they were all working together to identify their next fight plane and the U.S Air Force Advanced day fighter now called the air combat fighter was going to be a top candidate if the Air Force was confident enough to make their own purchase of it the Navy too was expressing interest in an alternative to the grimene 14 Tomcat which was underwhelming to say the least but the Navy also wanted the option to use their Fighters for ground attack purposes basically indicating that they'd support a navalized version of the advanced day fighter under all this pressure and with the option to make a good bit of cash for the military industrial complex Secretary of Defense James air Schlesinger made an announcement in October of 1974. he and his Department were considering providing a production line version of the air combat fighter contest winner to the Air Force the Navy and Export customers too but now it wouldn't just be an air superiority fighter it would instead become a multi-role aircraft with the potential to complete a wide variety of missions against air ground or Naval targets surely after the Air Force sent a big bold symbol to international buyers the Air Force wanted 650 of them and they might even increase their order to 1400 or more in January of 1975 the yf-16 was selected as the contest winner and named the F-16 by the Air Force to hear secretary John mclucas tell it the F-16 offered numerous material advantages over the yf-17 it was cheaper more maneuverable had a longer range and it used the same untrustworthy but mass-produced and easily available turbofan as the F-15 and finally the plane was chosen because General Dynamics risk going and solvent without it now that the F-111 program was wrapping up as for the yf-17 don't be too sorry to see it go it would later evolve into the Navy's fa-18 and still serves today the F-16 was slated for a total production run of 2000 planes split between the Air Force and NATO customers and production began in Fort Worth Texas in August of 1975. pleased with what they were seeing the airports requested even more planes in 1977 and added that they wanted to use the f 16 as a light bomber too in January 1979 the first f-16s were delivered to Hill Air Force Base in Europe and shortly after they'd make it to the Belgian Dutch Danish Norwegian and Israeli Air Forces just over a year later the plane was nicknamed The Fighting Falcon although then as now it's just known as the Viper by just about anybody who works with it [Music] as soon as it entered service the F-16 became one of the most advanced fighter aircraft in the world and in a long series of variant adaptations and design blocks it's really only gotten better with time the f-16a one seater and the F-16 b2c2 were the first planes off the production line but it was the f-16c and D also one and two seaters respectively that really saw the plane settle into the Baseline capabilities that have carried it through its service Life we'll focus on the specifications for the f-16c here although the planes many variants and indeed production blocks within the same variant have been known to vary somewhat the F-16 flies at a top speed of 2.05 times the speed of sound or 1 353 miles per hour it is Optimum altitude of 40 000 feet even at sea level as air show Fanatics already know the thing could go bloody fast hitting speeds of 921 miles per hour at Full Clip the plane has a combat range of about 340 miles when fully loaded with no drop tanks but external fuel can significantly bump up that range the plane flies at a service ceiling of 50 000 feet routinely hits 9 G's and at an empty weight of just under 20 000 pounds or ten tons it's one of the smaller fighter aircraft in service it's 49 feet long a wingspan of 32 feet and although its engine will vary they're invariably powerful enough to send the F-16 catapulting through the sky in terms of its Armament it's gripped with the rotary Cannon two wingtip hardpoint six underwing hardpoints and three pylons under the fuselage which can carry up to four rocket pods 6 air-to-air or air-to-service missiles four anti-ship missiles or up to 12 smaller guided bombs on the other end it can also carry b61 or b83 nuclear bombs and has long been a key part of the United States is air element of its nuclear Triad beyond the specs the F-16 is capable of some very impressive Feats as fighter aircraft it can locate Targets in all conditions detect low-flying adversaries and defend itself competently against any plane of its day and the vast majority of what's also flying today it could bomb targets accurately from a range of 500 miles even in non-visual conditions and its bubble canopy and fly-by-wire system afford Pilots except optional control over their aircraft and a keen awareness of the environment the plane's avionics include a highly accurate GPS heads-up display and steering AIDs that includes early warning and countermeasure systems and an electronic warfare Suite aside from the base version of The Fighter the F-16 has been adapted to fit a number of other roles depending on the Air Force's needs modular pods could convert the plane into a reconnaissance aircraft while avionic upgrades could make it into a far better fighter Interceptor craft they've been used for ground attack and bombing roles they've been used to conduct anti-radiation strikes they've even been converted into drones for target practice other Concepts like the minigun armed a16 ground tag variant were developed but never produced and on the production line from General Dynamics to its acquisition by Lockheed and then lockheed's merger into Lockheed Martin the F-16 has continued to evolve early changes were mostly housekeeping by example drilling drainage holes in order to deal with water gathering on the surface but over time the FCC radio is radar guidance systems its avionics its night attack capabilities and its navigation units have all been continually updated its weapons range has increased as more advanced weapons have become available and its fuel capacity has been upgraded to the f-16v announced in 2012 includes even more advanced technology and a cutting-edge mission computer which allows it to operate more competently alongside fifth generation fighter aircraft in the United States the F-16 is used by the Air Force the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard as well as filling in for combat simulations as enemy aircraft when the Navy runs its training drills the F-16 was also used heavily in Operation Desert Storm when 249 aircraft flew well over 13 000 sorties during the conflict through a lost to enemy action all because of surface-to-air attacks and four others were damaged at a rate of well over a thousand sorties per aircraft casualty f-16s were the central aircraft in the largest airstrike of the entire war known as package Q when 72 aircraft raided downtown Baghdad of the following decade f-16s would Patrol Iraqi airspace in a no-fly zone and on the 27th of December 1992 the F-16 got its first air-to-air kill the very same mig-25 that had caused the advanced day fighter to be dropped by the Air Force three decades earlier flown by an Iraqi pilot this particular mig-25 was shot down with a missile designed to operate past visual range and while this 2 was a first in the following decades the F-16 would see action over the Balkans where it would shoot down several enemy aircraft taking zero air-to-air losses during the intervention f-16s would be lost to surface to airfar again but encountered only minimal resistance in the air in Afghanistan too F-16 served for nearly 20 years with only one fighter lost during crash in the 2003 invasion of Iraq and F-16 crashed when it ran out of fuel but the planes otherwise emerged unscathed and in the following decade in Iraq f-16s would maintain Complete Air Supremacy just as they did in Libya in 2011 during operation Odyssey Dawn lastly it should be noted that f-16s were scrambled during the 911 terrorist attack including two unarmed Fighters that were dispatched to RAM and bring down United Airlines Flight 93 before it could attack a Target in Washington DC tragically Flight 93 would be forced down by its own passengers before those Pilots could make a sacrifice of their own but while the F-16 hasn't had to do much in the way of air-to-air combat on the US's behalf it's done plenty for other countries today dozens of Nations all around the world fly the F-16 from major regional powers like South Korea turkey Israel and Indonesia to close U.S allies like Denmark Belgium and Taiwan Israel has also used the planes to carry out attacks against Iraq and Lebanon and in 1982 the F-16 was credited with 44 air-to-air kills against the Syrian Air Force while not taking a single air-to-air loss of their own although Syria at the time claimed to have shot down several but the lack of missing Israeli planes after the conflict speaks for itself the F-16 got a workout over the Skies of Pakistan as well in service to the Pakistani Air Force the plane shot down no fewer than 10 aircraft as the Soviet Afghan war spilled over into its airspace in return one F-16 was lost while in the air but Pakistani authorities have claimed that this was during a friendly fire incident and you could make it that way you will for the last decade and a half Pakistani f-16s have attacked the Taliban in the Northwest reaches of the country and it's played a central role in mutual posturing between Pakistan and India in Turkey one F-16 was one lost after violating Greek airspace into Greek Turkish F-16 collided during a mock dogfight in 2006 killing the Greek pilot but turkey's f-16s recorded no losses over ten thousand Saudis over Bosnia and Kosovo and they've taken a central role in turkey's operations in Syria are where they've claimed numerous air-to-air kills against zero losses and also carried out large-scale bombings against ground targets as of 2023 over 4 500 f-16s of all model types have been produced in 26 countries include the F-16 in their Arsenal the plane is beloved by its pilots and has been more than accepted by the Air Force although the plane was initially expected to retire from service in 2025 but service life has been extended through at least 2048 in response to budget constraints and procurement issues with its eventual replacement the F-35 the Air Forces expressed interest in continuing to buy new models of the plane and its continual upgrades for export customers have ensured that the plane's capabilities have adapted and grown with the times these days the UAE flies the most advanced version of the F-16 the Box 60 desert Falcon and other upgraded configurations are in service with countries like Taiwan the planes low cost its Simplicity and its adaptability continue to set it apart from competitor aircraft and while other aircraft like the Russian MiG-29 the Chinese jf-17 and the Euro Fighter typhoon and the Saab Griffin can rival it in various ways the F-16 is at least on paper more than k ball a standing shoulder to shoulder with them these days the biggest open question around the F-16 is its coming entry to the war in Ukraine where expert opinions are mixed on whether or not the fighter will be able to help the Ukrainian Air Force break a year-long stalemate in the skies on the one hand f-16s are a valuable and clear Improvement on beneath the Ukrainian Air Force currently flies on the other Ukraine probably isn't going to receive top of the line newer models and the planes got some serious maintenance requirements in order to keep it airworthy it'll also need Munitions and it'll be flying into a buzzsaw of Russian surface-to-air defenses finally Russia may even seek to try its Lark in at air combat against f-16s with the potential for serious geopolitical ramifications as advanced russian-made and American-made Fighters have their most significant opportunity ever to meet in force also highly relevant is the way that the F-16 has become a valuable Benchmark for the United States as it judges the capabilities of its next Generation aircraft in simulated dog fights between the F-16 and the F-35 the F-16 was more than enough to overcome the f-35's poor turning radius and climb rate this was even after the f-16s used in testing were weighed down with drop tax not only are the f-16s technical capabilities more optimized for air-to-air combat than its replacement but as military analyst and retired lieutenant colonel Dan Ward pointed out in the wake of the F-35 failure the newer plane is far more complex than the F-16 making it less user-friendly harder to become proficient in flying and less reliable simply because so many more things can go wrong in a move that would simultaneously embolden and horrify the fighter Mafia of old the F-16 remains sharply relevant in the modern day because its successor craft simply isn't built to handle the sort of off-script messy aerial engagements that the air force of half a century ago also refused to plan for so in all regards it's hard to deny that the F-16 goes down as a resounding success a beat of Engineering in its own time a brilliantly adaptable multi-role fighter and an Indus suspensable part of air defense not just in America but around the world it served Faithfully for well over four decades and even today the Fighting Falcon has many many miles to go before one day it may finally rest [Music] [Music] thank you

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Id: jw4iROXxMMw

Length: 22min 0sec (1320 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 09 2023