The U.S. Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin [LMT] a more than $151 million contract for eight F-16 Block 70 fighters for Bulgaria under the foreign military sales (FMS) program.
“Work will be performed at Fort Worth, Texas; and Greenville, South Carolina, and is expected to be completed by Sept. 30, 2027,” DoD said in a Sept. 14 contract announcement.
FMS of the F-16 Block 70/72 Viper F-16 and Air Force upgrades under the Post Block Integration Team project of as many as 608 Block 40 and Block 50 F-16s are keeping the F-16 line alive.
BAE Systems said last October that it has released a new Viper Memory Loader Verifier II (MLV II) for F-16 fighters to enhance their protection from cyber attacks (Defense Daily, Oct. 12, 2022).
BAE Systems said at the time that two countries have ordered six Viper MLV IIs for F-16 Block 70/72s under FMS and that those countries may order 15 more Viper MLV IIs.
Since 2019, the U.S. State Department has approved F-16 Block 70/72 sales to Morocco, Taiwan, the Philippines, Bulgaria and Jordan. Air Force F-16s are to receive 22 modifications, including Link 16 capability and the Northrop Grumman [NOC] APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (Defense Daily, March 16, 2022).