TAI wins Pakistan F-16 modernisation contract
Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI) is to modernise 42 Pakistani Lockheed Martin F-16A/Bs at its facilities near Ankara.
The announcement of the $75million contract was made this morning and TAI will begin the upgrades in October 2010 and complete the final aircraft in August 2014. TAI has already demonstrated its experience with its upgrade programme for the Turkish Air Force and more recently upgrading Jordan’s older F-16s
This contract has been on the books for almost three years but the Pakastani government has had to negotiate the sale of the upgrade kits and associated packages from the USA in the meantime.
The upgrade programme is part of a $5.1 billion arms package that the USA gave Pakistan to help it modernise its air force. It is also buying 18 new F-16C/D Block 52 aircraft powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100-229 engines and additional refurbished F-16s from Lockheed as part of that deal.
Pakistan bought the F-16A/B Mid-Life Update modification kits and Falcon Star Structural Service Life Enhancement kits to upgrade its older F-16s closer to the Block 50 standard.
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