Bulgaria announces F-16V Block 70 procurement to replace ageing MiG-29s

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

The Bulgarian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced a plan to procure eight F-16V Block 70 fighter jets aimed at replacing its Soviet-designed MiG-29s.

On Friday, Bulgaria’s defense ministry commission recommended that the government starts talks with the United States to buy new F-16V Block 70 fighter aircraft to improve its compliance with NATO standards.

“The acquisition of a new multipurpose fighter such as F-16V Block 70 from the United States, equipped with the latest generation radar and weaponry will improve significantly the combat capabilities of the Bulgarian air forces,” Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov told reporters on Friday.

Apart from the new Lockheed Martin F-16 jets the United States also proposed new Boeing F-18 Super Hornets. The ministry, however, said it that offer did not meet the tender requirements.

more at https://defence-blog.com/news/bulga...rocurement-to-replace-ageing-mig-29s.html/amp

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

@pakistanipower

 

[Theparadox]

What's the present airframe life of their MiG-29s? Service life?

 

[Maxpane]

Why not upgraded mig 29?

 

[Signalian]

The Bulgarian Ministry of Defence (MoD) has announced a plan to procure eight F-16V Block 70 fighter jets aimed at replacing its Soviet-designed MiG-29s.

On Friday, Bulgaria’s defense ministry commission recommended that the government starts talks with the United States to buy new F-16V Block 70 fighter aircraft to improve its compliance with NATO standards.

“The acquisition of a new multipurpose fighter such as F-16V Block 70 from the United States, equipped with the latest generation radar and weaponry will improve significantly the combat capabilities of the Bulgarian air forces,” Bulgaria’s Defense Minister Krasimir Karakachanov told reporters on Friday.

Apart from the new Lockheed Martin F-16 jets the United States also proposed new Boeing F-18 Super Hornets. The ministry, however, said it that offer did not meet the tender requirements.

more at https://defence-blog.com/news/bulga...rocurement-to-replace-ageing-mig-29s.html/amp

F-18 SH is a better option over F-16 Block 70, leading up to EA-18G.

 

[Beast]

Why not upgraded mig 29?

Spares are hard to get, Russian dont produced quality spares. Ask Malaysia and India airforce.

 

[LeGenD]

F-16 Block 70 is equipped with 5th generation AN/APG-83 AESA radar system:-

“Inside the airplane there are things that make a Block 70 a Block 70. Things that you can’t see. We’ll start with the radar. So on the front end of the airplane is this APG83 — it’s an Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. Unlike the Block 60 airplanes, that are liquid-cooled, this is air-cooled, so there’s no need for all that plumbing that the Block 60 has. If you notice there’s no mechanical feature to this. There are transmitter-receiver modules all over the array and they can do multiple things all at once. So I can do air-to-air, air-to-ground, electronic warfare, synthetic aperture radar maps all at the same time. It is a significant difference in capability than what we had before,” said Balserak.

“To put it in comparison, the airplanes that I flew with the legacy APG68 radars — compared to this, it’s the difference between a rotary telephone and a smartphone. It’s that different. I can see from significantly further away — I can target multiple targets and I can do multiple tasks all at the same time. That’s a huge difference in capability,” he explained.

“One of the things you can’t really see here, but inside the structure — we have a new mission computer. So the new mission computer is significantly faster than the old mission computers that are in any other F-16 and they are connected via Ethernet into the airplane so what that means is no more 1553 buses — it means we can send very large amounts of data very, very quickly throughout the airplane. The big difference in the cockpit is the Center Pedestal Display — it’s essentially a high definition television set. It is not a touchscreen. And that was deliberate because in this configuration touching the screen when the pilot is maneuvering around manipulating things — you could actually physically touch and move something you don’t want. That was on purpose.

Internal set-of-components in F-16 Block 70 are entirely different from in earlier Blocks:-

Payload options for F-16 Block 70:-

Balserak also says the Block 70 will have the ability to carry ten air-to-air missiles.

“This is the one that I really like — for the Indian Air Force we’re offering what are called triple rail launchers. So the standard F-16 that I flew in an air-to-air configuration or any other F-16 on the planet can carry only six missiles. That’s all you have. Just six. In this configuration you can carry ten air-to-air missiles. So, what does that mean in air-to-air combat?” he asked.

And answered, “Any other F-16 on the planet (including Pakistani) can only carry 6 missiles right now. This will enable you to have ten missiles. You have a radar that far outdistances any other F-16 radar out there — so I can see you first, I can shoot you first, I kill you first — it’s a significant difference in capability from any other F-16.”

F-16 Block 70 also have AUTO GCAS system:-

A final feature Balserak wanted to touch upon was the Auto GCAS in the F-16.

“The United States Air Force — we created a system — and we started this a long time ago — but we implemented this system in the airplane called Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System. And what Auto GCAs does is when you do mission planning — inside that data transfer cartridge, you load a digital base of wherever it is you’re flying around — right. And what Auto GCAS does is — in circumstances where the pilot’s not paying attention or the pilots incapacitated — let’s say G-induced loss of consciousness — and the airplane is pointed to the ground — imminently getting ready to hit the ground. Auto GCAS calculates the aircraft’s nose position, airspeed, angle of attack, current G and the digital terrain beneath it on its own and will initiate a recovery above the ground before the airplane and the pilot impacts the ground,” he said.

“Today, if I have the number right, the United States Air Force has recorded seven ‘saves’ from Auto GCAS. Seven. That’s in the two-ish plus years since we implemented it in the airplane. That’s amazing. It gives me goosebumps because in my career, I’ve lost a couple of students because of G-induced loss of consciousness,” explained Balserak.

“I wouldn’t call G-induced loss of consciousness common, but it does happen, which is why we put it on the airplane. The airplane is very, very high performance — 9Gs does significantly challenging things to your body and if you’re not prepared when you pull on the airplane you can go ‘night-night’ — you can ‘G-induced loss of consciousness’ yourself and if nobody’s flying the airplane then the airplane will go in the last place you led it — and if that happens to be straight down, then you’re going to hit the ground,” he elaborated.

Source of information: https://www.stratpost.com/detailed-lockheed-martins-f-16-offer-to-india/

In the nutshell, Block 70 is a big jump from the already impressive Block 60 configuration.

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Why not upgraded mig 29?

Bulgaria is NATO enemy of Russia. Russia ban arms sales to Bulgaria.

Spares are hard to get, Russian dont produced quality spares. Ask Malaysia and India airforce.

J-10 uses Russian AL-31 engine so it can't be that bad. Chinese should not lie about their #1 ally in the world.

 

[Beast]

Bulgaria is NATO enemy of Russia. Russia ban arms sales to Bulgaria.



J-10 uses Russian AL-31 engine so it can't be that bad. Chinese should not lie about their #1 ally in the world.

China AL-31 engines are all re-haul by Chinese themselves.

http://defense-studies.blogspot.com/2010/09/china-makes-modifications-to-russian.html

Your comparison of Chinese with Bulgaria is wrong. China has massive industries to support its own weapon. Bulgaria is a small country and has no mean to re haul engines themselves.

Our J-11B, J-11BS and J-16 is 100% made in China with WS-10 engines.

Look at Chinese sovrenmenny destroyer. Do we even need to send it back to Russia for upgraded?

https://www.popsci.com/china-refits-older-warships-for-bigger-punch

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

China AL-31 engines are all re-haul by Chinese themselves.

http://defense-studies.blogspot.com/2010/09/china-makes-modifications-to-russian.html

Your comparison of Chinese with Bulgaria is wrong. China has massive industries to support its own weapon.

Our J-11B, J-11BS and J-16 is 100% made in China with WS-10 engines.

Look at Chinese sovrenmenny destroyer. Do we even need to send it back to Russia for upgraded?

https://www.popsci.com/china-refits-older-warships-for-bigger-punch

So what? There is no proof Russia engines are bad. A couple of articles from the west don't prove anything.

 

[Beast]

So what? There is no proof Russia engines are bad. A couple of articles from the west don't prove anything.

Yes, it proves Russian engine is bad. Chinese is capable of repair Ruskie stuff , so no complain even we buy them. Even the RD-93 engines for JF-17 is rehaul by Chinese and Pakistan and never send back to Russia for repair.

But not other countries..

 

[Basel]

So what? There is no proof Russia engines are bad. A couple of articles from the west don't prove anything.

Sukhoi parts and engines are better quality built compared to Migs that is one major reason countries prefer Sukhoi over Mig now

 

[YeBeWarned]

Everyone is getting F-16V block 70 except PAF (hitwall)

 

[Yongpeng Sun-Tastaufen]

Everyone is getting F-16V block 70 except PAF (hitwall)

Only the Russia hating eastern European small countries. Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia, Czech, Poland.

 

[YeBeWarned]

Only the Russia hating eastern European small countries. Romania, Croatia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, Bosnia, Czech, Poland.

And Taiwan too