page_title: General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon operators
section_title: Turkey
hierarchical_section_title: General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon operators / Europe / Turkey
caption_attribution_description: English: An F-16C Falcon from the Turkish Air Force waits to take on fuel from a 100th Air Expeditionary Wing KC-135R Stratotanker (not shown) from RAF Mildenhall United Kingdom on Mar. 31, 1999. The Falcon is armed with AIM-120C Advanced Medium Range Air to Air Missiles on the wingtips and AIM-9 Sidewinders on the inboard wing stations while on patrol in support of Operation Allied Force.
context_page_description: The United States Air Force, four of its NATO partners, and Pakistan, a major non-NATO ally, are the primary operators of General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. With the evolution of sales under Foreign Military Sales contracts, many other air forces have also acquired F-16s. Most nations that have bought F-16s continue to use them as of 2010.
  The F-16 is still in demand today, and many air forces are looking to replace aging inventories with F-16s. Because the USAF has steadily upgraded its F-16 inventory, it will sometimes sell older aircraft it considers obsolete as surplus Excess Defense Articles or as "knockdown" aircraft to supplement spares inventories.
context_section_description: The Turkish Air Force is the world's third largest operator of the F-16, following the US and Israel. Turkey became one of the nations to indigenously produce the F-16, under a license from Lockheed Martin. Turkey initially received in total 240 F-16s. However, a further 30 were ordered in 2007. All Turkish F-16s are built by Turkish Aerospace Industries (TAI). Each new aircraft had to visit American territory under the terms of the PEACE ONYX Foreign Military Sales program before being turned over to the Turkish Air Force. In 2005, Turkey signed a $1.1 billion avionics upgrade package, based on the USAF's Common Configuration Implementation Program (CCIP). In addition to this, the Turkish Air Force put a firm order for 30 more F-16 Block 50+, to be built by TAI.  As of 2016, all existing F16s are now in Block 50+ 'Viper' configuration. On 24 March 2019, the Turkish State Secretariat for Defence officially confirmed that a further upgrade with ASELSAN for the modernisation of THK's entire F-16 fleet with a domestic AESA radar and a new indigenous EW-self-protection suite by 2021.
caption: An F-16C Falcon from the Turkish Air Force
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