Turkish Aerospace Industries to upgrade 42 F-16 jets
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) has agreed to upgrade 42 Pakistani F-16 fighter jets.Negotiations will be done later this year and then the contract for upgrading the F-16 fighter jets will be awarded to the Turkish company.
Such upgrade will boost the Pakistan Air Force F-16′s capability close the newer models of the F-16 Block 50 standard.
Four of the 46 Pakistani F-16s are already in the United States for the MLU upgrade, which means that all 46 F-16 Block 15 aircrafts will be upgraded over time.
The upgrading of the 42 F-16s is set to begin in 2009 at TAI facilities near Ankara, Turkey.
In the competition of the deal. TAI was competing against a Dutch company Fokker and a Belgian company, Sabca.
Two of the 42 F-16s to be upgraded at the TAI facility will go for a test verification installation at a Lockheed Martin facility in the United States.
Pakistan issued the upgrading tender after an agreement was signed between Pakistan and United States in September 2007 clearing the transfer of avionics and structural upgrade components.
No comments:
Post a Comment