Why is the F-16 still so highly valued in a market dominated by more modern fighters?

The F-16 Fighting Falcon made its first flight on February 2, 1974, being part of the fourth generation of fighter aircraft.

50 years of the F-16 Fighting Falcon: the figures of the most successful fourth generation fighter
Some excellent images of F-16s from Poland, Portugal, and Romania flying over Lithuania

The F-16 was born at a time when it was normal for a fighter jet to not last many years in active service. To give us an idea, the F-86 Sabre entered service with the US Air Force in 1949 and by 1961 it was only used in some squadrons of the Air National Guard, being retired in 1965. The F-100 Super Sabre was also short-lived: its operational life in the USAF lasted from 1954 to 1970. The F-101 Voodoo only lasted 15 years: from 1957 to 1972. The F-104 Starfighter entered service with the USAF in 1958 and was retired in 1983.

As the 1960s approached, things began to change. The F-4 Phantom II was longer-lived than its predecessors: it was produced from 1958 to 1981 and served in the USAF from 1963 to 1996 (including the F-4G Wild Weasel). The F-111 Aardvark was in service from 1967 to 1998. The F-14 Tomcat served with the US Navy from 1974 to 2006. Against all odds, three fighters from the 1970s have set durability records: the F-15 Eagle (in service with the USAF in various versions since 1976), the F/A-18 Hornet (in service since 1984 with the Navy, which retired it in 2019, replacing it with the Super Hornet; but it is still active with the Marines) and the F-16.

The Fighting Falcon is an example of the ingredients for a successful fighter jet. The first of these is its price, considerably lower than that of the F-15 and the F/A-18, which is why it has been a sales success with more than 4,600 units sold. On the other hand, a great advantage of the F-16 is that it is a multipurpose fighter jet capable of carrying out different missions: hunting, attack, reconnaissance, electronic warfare... and all this with a very wide arsenal of weapons.

There's another often overlooked piece of information that says a lot about an aircraft: its operational cost. In November 2022, the U.S. Government Accountability Office published a report (see PDF) that showed the operating costs of various fighter jets:

• F-22 Raptor: $85,325 per hour.
• F/A-18A-D Hornet: $50,810 per hour.
• F-35A/B/C Lightning II: $41,986 per hour.
• F-15C/D Eagle: $38,668 per hour.
• F-15E Strike Eagle: $33,177 per hour.
• F/A-18E/F Super Hornet: $30,404 per hour.
• F-16 Fighting Falcon: $26,927 per hour.
• A-10 Thunderbolt II: $22,531 per hour.

Obviously, the F-16 does not have stealth capabilities nor does it have avionics as advanced as the F-35, which is why this fifth-generation fighter is gradually replacing the Fighting Falcon in different countries. But thanks to its continuous development, the F-16 remains a very capable aircraft, as it is demonstrating in Ukraine, where its performance is better than the Soviet and Russian fighters operated until now by the Ukrainian Air Force, and also by some models in service with the Russian Air Force.

These reasons explain why the F-16 has been in production since 1974, a record only surpassed by the F-15, which has been in production since 1972, with the difference that Eagle has had more modest sales: around 1,200 aircraft. To give you an idea of ​​what that period of time means, it is as if the P-51 Mustang were still being manufactured as a fighter jet in 1990. I have always been a big fan of the F-15; it is my favorite fighter, but I recognize that the F-16 deserves to be among the best fighters in history.

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Fotos: U.S. Air Force.