One is at the end of runway 01, the next airborne in the middle of that runway and one flies already over the fields.
These are fighters from the 68 or 70 TFS. Both equipped with F-16C/D Block 32. The squadrons
Block 30/32
The first aircraft subject to the Alternative Fighter Engine project under which aircraft could be fitted with the traditional Pratt & Whitney engines or for the first time the General Electric F110-GE-100. Blocks ending in '0' are powered by GE, blocks ending in '2' are fitted with Pratt & Whitney engines.
The first Block 30 F-16 entered service in 1987. Major differences include the carriage of the AGM-45 Shrike and AGM-88 HARM missiles. From Block 30D aircraft were fitted with enlarged inlets for the increased thrust GE engine, Block 32s were not modified in this way. 733 were produced and delivered to six countries. The Block 32H/J aircraft assigned to the USAF Thunderbird flight demonstration squadron were built in 1986 and 1987 and are some of the oldest operational F-16's in the Air Force. The Block 30's were upgraded significantly with the addition of the Embedded Global Positioning satellite (GPS) Inertial Navigation System (EGI) allowing the use of JDAM and other GPS aided munitions (See Block 50 list below). This capability in combination with the Grumman LITENING targeting pod enhanced and extended the usability and lifespan of this block of the F-16C. This modification to the baseline Block 30 is commonly known by Viper Drivers as the F-16C++ (pronounced 'plus plus') version. |
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