RBAF F-16V to arrive in 2024

The first Lockheed Martin F-16 Block 70 Fighting Falcons, out of an order for sixteen aircraft, for the Royal Bahraini Air Force (RBAF) are scheduled to be delivered in the first half of 2024. Deliveries are expected to be finished by 2025.

The first Block 70 F-16s will be delivered to the US government in early 2023, after having completed the Final Assembly and Checkout (FACO) process in Greenville (SC). After a period of testing, checking and acceptance they will be ferried in batches of four by USAF pilots.

In November 2017, Lockheed Martin, the US Department of Defense (DoD) and the Kingdom of Bahrain signed a deal for the procurement of the F-16s. Bahrain was the first country to order the new-build Block 70 fighters. So far the Republic of China (Taiwan), Jordan, Morocco, Bulgaria and Slovakia joined the Middle East country in procuring the newest Fighting Falcon version.

As known, the RBAF also starts an upgrade programme to the Block 70 standard for their current twenty strong F-16C/D Block 40 fleet. The RBAF F-16 fleet is based at Shaikh Isa Air Base with the Fighter Wing and operates two squadrons Block 40s.

Photo (F-16C Block 40) by Oscar Vis (Scramble Archive)