Some info about the Desert Falcons the UAE operate:
Even so, each advance costs money to develop, integrate, and test. The UAE invested almost $3 billion into research and development for the F-16 E/F Block 60 Desert Falcon. The aircraft’s conformal fuel tanks carry more fuel, and their 40% range increase gives the planes a mission radius of 1,025 miles. Those larger tanks will feed GE’s new F110-GE-132 engine, which produces up to 32,500 pounds of thrust to offset the plane’s increased weight. The 132 is a derivative of the proven F110-GE-129, a 29,000-pound thrust class engine that powers the majority of F-16 C/D fighters worldwide.
The Desert Falcons’ most significant changes, however, are electronic. The most important is the Northrop Grumman AN/APG-80 AESA radar, which made the UAE the first air force in the world besides the USAF to field this revolutionary new radar technology. AESA radars have more power, better range, less sidelobe “leakage,” better reliability and much better combat availability, and more potential capabilities via software improvements, vs. mechanically-scanned arrays like the AN/APG-68v9s that equip the most advanced American and foreign F-16s. Unlike the APG-68s, the APG-80 can perform simultaneous ground and air scan, track, and targeting, and has an “agile beam” that reduces the odds of detection by opposing aircraft when the radar is on. This last feature is important. Due to the inverse square law for propagation, one pilot has described turning on older radar designs in combat as being similar to turning on a flashlight in a large and dark building. It can be seen much farther away than it can illuminate.
The Desert Falcons also take a step beyond the targeting pod systems fielded on other F-16s, by incorporating them into the aircraft itself. Northrop Grumman’s AN/ASQ-32 IFTS is derived from its work on the AN/AQS-28 LITENING AT pod, but the internal positioning reduces drag and radar signature, and frees up a weapons pylon. The ASQ-32 can be used to find aerial targets, as well as opponents on the ground.
A helmet mounted display option provides advanced capabilities commensurate with their most modern counterparts, and displays information from the aircraft’s radar and sensors. Avionics improvements round out the enhancements via an advanced mission computer to enhance sensor and weapon integration, a trio of 5”x7” color displays in the cockpit, et. al.