Taiwan Mulls F-16 Viper Fighter Purchase From the US.
According to unconfirmed Taiwanese media reports, the Republic of China Air Force (ROCAF) had expressed interest in procuring up to 66 Lockheed Martin F-16 Fighting Falcon Viper (V) Block 70 multirole combat aircraft. F-16V fighters are equipped with an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar system, upgraded avionics, and a high-volume, high-speed data bus, among other things.
Notably, Taiwan is in the process of upgrading its F-16 A/B fleet to the F-16V variant. The first four retrofitted F-16A/B fighters, upgraded by Taiwan’s state-owned Aerospace Industrial Development Corporation (AIDC), were handed over to ROCAF at an airbase in Chiayi county in southwestern Taiwan in October 2018.
The program, codenamed Phoenix Rising Project, was launched in 2016 with the purpose of upgrading 144 ROCAF A/B Fighting Falcon combat aircraft to the F-16V configuration by 2023.
What I want to know is, what’s under those new bulges on each side of the top of the airframe?
(Photo courtesy of Lockheed-Martin.)
h/t SG