Sale Of Advanced F-16s To The Philippines Moves Forward

New F-16s with advanced sensors for the Philippines keep with the tightening relationship between Washington and Manila as China’s power grows.

The U.S. State Department has approved the potential sale of 20 F-16C/D Block 70/72 fighters to the Philippines, the latest turn in a long-running saga as Manila seeks to revamp its air force. The announcement comes as the United States reinforces military ties with the Southeast Asian country, with a recent visit there by U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the forthcoming deployment of U.S. anti-ship and land-attack missile systems for a military drill.

The approved Foreign Military Sale package, which has an estimated cost of $5.58 billion, covers 16 single-seat F-16C and four two-seat F-16D versions. As well as the aircraft and engines, the package includes: AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radars (SABR), AN/AAQ-33 Sniper advanced targeting pods, AN/ALQ-254 Viper Shield electronic warfare or equivalent systems, Scorpion Hybrid Optical-based Inertial Trackers (HObIT) or Joint Helmet-Mounted Cueing Systems II (JHMCS II) helmet-mounted displays, and undisclosed infrared search and track (IRST) systems.The IRST system could be a version of Lockheed Martin’s Legion, a pod-mounted sensor that is also offered in a miniaturized form for the F-16 Block 70/72 as the Legion-Embedded System (ES). Legion pods are fitted on the left underside of the forward fuselage, on the chin hardpoint.

An alternative could be the Northrop Grumman OpenPod, a modular, open-architecture design, equipped with Leonardo’s SkyWard IRST sensor. This pod might be more likely for export to the Philippines and is notably already used by Top Aces, a private adversary air company. An IRST of any kind is especially useful as an additional way of detecting and tracking other aircraft at long ranges, including ones that employ stealth technology to hide from radar. The pod can also provide targeting information so the pilot can engage an enemy passively, without emitting any electromagnetic energy. You can read more about the capabilities that the Legion pod offers here.

Air-to-air weapons are set to be provided in the form of up to 112 AIM-120C-8 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) and 40 AIM-9X Block II Sidewinder infrared-guided air-to-air missiles. Offensive weapons in the package comprise 36 GBU-39/B Small Diameter Bombs (SDB), 60 Mk 82 500-pound general-purpose bombs, 60 Mk 84 2,000-pound general-purpose bombs, 30 Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) tail kits for the GBU-38 or GBU-54 Laser JDAM, and 30 kits for GBU-50 Enhanced Paveway II precision-guided bombs. Overall, the total number of munitions included is relatively tiny, for a deal of this kind.