Lockheed Martin and Air Force officials on March 26 completed the installation of new avionics gear on the 306th and final F-16 Block 40/42 aircraft to be upgraded at Odgen Air Logistics Center, Utah, under the common configuration implementation program. With this, the depot finished its portion of the CCIP work, having modernized 560 F-16s since 2001, including 254 F-16 Block 50/52s, Troy Mogck, Lockheed systems engineer in the CCIP program office there, told the Daily Report Tuesday. Overall, the Air Force is upgrading 651 F-16 Block 40/42s and Block 50/52s under CCIP, the largest F-16 modernization initiative to date. The new avionics increase aircraft lethality and harmonize the configuration of the two blocks to one standard. Work in Korea to upgrade Pacific Air Forces F-16s is expected to conclude in June, thereby completing all CCIP installations, said Mogck. (See Odgen’s March 25 report.)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.