U.S. State Department Clears $7.3 Billion for F-16 Viper Mid-Life Upgrade

Then Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki and two other officials stand in front of a Polish F-16 getting serviced in November, 2022 (Polish Ministry of Defense Photo)

The U.S. State Department has approved an up to $7.3 billion foreign military sale to Poland of the Lockheed Martin F-16 Viper Midlife Upgrade, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency said on Wednesday.

“The proposed sale will allow Poland to modify and upgrade its existing F-16 aircraft to the new Viper configuration,” DSCA said. “The F-16 Viper Midlife Upgrade (MLU) will bolster Poland’s air defense and surveillance capabilities, support national security, and strengthen Poland’s defense and contributions to NATO.”

The MLU equipment includes 58 Improved Programmable Display Generators, a variety of test missiles, 58 Northrop Grumman AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR), 58 Embedded Global Positioning System (GPS) Inertial Navigation Systems (INS) (EGI) with Selective Availability Anti-Spoofing Module (SAASM) or M-Code capability and Precise Positioning Service, and 73 Northrop Grumman AN/ALQ-257 Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suites (IVEWS), or 73 AN/ALQ-254V(1) L3Harris Technologies‘ Viper Shield advanced electronic warfare suites or an equivalent.

In 2022, the Air Force chose IVEWS over Viper Shield to equip the service’s F-16s, but L3Harris said that it believes Viper Shield is a good fit in the future for F-16s.

Last month, L3Harris said that its site in Clifton, N.J., recently began the build of 166 Viper Shields for F-16 fighters in six countries under a total Viper Shield backlog of $1 billion.

Jennifer Lewis, the head of L3Harris’ airborne combat systems business, said that L3Harris is in talks with other countries to address what it believes is an additional $1.5 billion in demand.

A version of this story originally appeared in affiliate publication Defense Daily.

The post U.S. State Department Clears $7.3 Billion for F-16 Viper Mid-Life Upgrade appeared first on Avionics International.

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