F-16V upgrade for HAF Block 50 F-16s

It is anticipated that in the coming days the General Staff of the Elliniki Polemiki Aeroporia (HAF, Hellenic Air Force) will send a Letter of Request (LoR) to the United States for the upgrade of 38 F-16C/D Block 50 Fighting Falcons to the V variant.

In April 1993, General Dynamics received an order from Greece for forty F-16C/D Block 50 fighters, 32 F-16C and eight F-16D models. The fighters are powered by the General Electric F110-GE-129 engine, and are provided to Greece under Peace Xenia II. Deliveries started in 1997. Two aircraft were lost, one F-16C on 4 June 2009 and one F-16D on 26 January 2015.

The Block 50 F-16s will be upgraded at Nea Anchialos air base. At the same time, two Block 52 F-16s have completed their upgrade to the V variant and are in the process of being certified by Lockheed Martin in the US. In February 2021, Scramble Magazine reported on the departure of the first upgraded F-16 Block 52 to Lockheed Martin for certifiation. As soon as these two aircraft return to Greece, pilot training can start. The upgrade of the Block 52 F-16s will be done by Hellenic Aerospace Industries (HAI) at Tanagra air base.

The older Block 30 F-16s, of which 32 are still operational, will not be upgraded to the V variant. Accordingly, these F-16s are not going to be transferred anywhere outside Greece, nor is there any plan to give them away, but they will remain operationally active as they carry a huge workload in the Aegean on a daily basis. Ways to keep them at high availability are being considered, while a number of them will be converted into training aircraft for new fighters as an introduction to the future fleet of upgraded Block 50 and Block 52 F-16s.

Photo by Jurgen van Toor (Scramble Archive)