# 82 F-16's Grounded.



## DA SWO (Aug 20, 2014)

_We will waste money fixing them, instead of flying them to AZ and parking them. Good news is that it give the o/A-10 Community some serious ammo in the next round of aircraft cuts._

http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDispl...rom-flight-status-due-to-longeron-cracks.aspx

*WASHINGTON (AFNS) -- *U.S. Air Force officials recently removed 82 two-seat F-16D Fighting Falcons from flight status due to the discovery of canopy sill longeron cracks found between the front and rear pilot seats.

The cracks were discovered following an immediate action time compliance technical order, or TCTO, to inspect all F-16D due to initial structural cracks discovered during post-mission flight inspections.

Following the TCTO, individual F-16 units conducted inspections on the Air Force's 157 F-16Ds to ensure the structural integrity of the aircraft and pilot safety. As of Aug. 18, all aircraft have been inspected. Eighty-two were found to have cracks; the remaining 75 aircraft have been returned to flight status. The other F-16 variants were not affected.

The Air Force F-16 Systems Program Office and Lockheed Martin engineers are analyzing the F-16 structure and developing repair procedures to allow aircraft with cracks to resume operations for a limited number of flight hours while analysis continues on a permanent fix.

"As aircraft accumulate flight hours, cracks develop due to fatigue from sustained operations," said Lt. Col. Steve Grotjohn, the deputy chief of the Weapon System Division. "Fortunately, we have a robust maintenance, inspection and structural integrity program to discover and repair deficiencies as they occur."

The Air Force is working with its F-16D operational units to mitigate the impact on operations, training and readiness. Programmed flying training and F-16 pilot graduation impacts will depend on the number and timing of aircraft returned to service. Subject matter experts are considering multiple courses of action to mitigate these delays.

The F-16D fleet, the two-seat variant of the F-16 primarily used for training, is on average 24 years old with more than 5,500 hours of flight time. There are a total of 969 F-16s of all variants in the Air Force.


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## BloodStripe (Aug 20, 2014)

I'm not an aviation guru, but can you further explain your comment on how this helps the A/10 program? The two seat variant of the F16 is used primarily for training purposes. If they are just grounding the "D", are there other suitable trainers that the instructor's and students can utilize, ie T-38 (same issue of age though)? Yes, I understand you want to train with what you will fight with, but once a student learns to fly a fighter jet, is that skill set not easily transferable over? I am not talking about the weapon systems, but the bare basics of flight, landings, and take-offs.


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## AWP (Aug 20, 2014)

SOTGWarrior said:


> Yes, I understand you want to train with what you will fight with, but once a student learns to fly a fighter jet, is that skill set not easily transferable over? I am not talking about the weapon systems, but the bare basics of flight, landings, and take-offs.


 
Which they've already learned in Undergraduate Pilot Training. The D model is used in upgrade training, the last stop before a pilot goes to an operational unit. Additionally they are used for pilots transitioning to the -16 from other aircraft.


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## DA SWO (Aug 20, 2014)

Freefalling said:


> Which they've already learned in Undergraduate Pilot Training. The D model is used in upgrade training, the last stop before a pilot goes to an operational unit. Additionally they are used for pilots transitioning to the -16 from other aircraft.



They also do flight check rides and upgrade training with D's.


SOTGWarrior said:


> I'm not an aviation guru, but can you further explain your comment on how this helps the A/10 program? The two seat variant of the F16 is used primarily for training purposes. If they are just grounding the "D", are there other suitable trainers that the instructor's and students can utilize, ie T-38 (same issue of age though)? Yes, I understand you want to train with what you will fight with, but once a student learns to fly a fighter jet, is that skill set not easily transferable over? I am not talking about the weapon systems, but the bare basics of flight, landings, and take-offs.



Fixing this will increase the life-cycle costs of the weapon system.
That was the primary (stated) justification for killing the O/A-10 Squadrons.

They have about 10 (Operational) Squadron flying today, killing older expensive to fix F-16's could free funds for the Warthog.


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## BloodStripe (Aug 20, 2014)

Thank you for the further clarification.


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## SpongeBob*24 (Aug 26, 2014)

That sucks we loose some 16s....

but way cool if it helps the A10s resurface.

I promise i didnt help sabotage these tests!!!!!


:-"


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## BloodStripe (Aug 31, 2014)

Does anyone know whether or not any of the aircraft in this thread actually got fielded? 

https://shadowspear.com/vb/threads/secret-program-works-to-field-seal-plane.4231/

Seems like some of these would work well in the A10's place.


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## DA SWO (Sep 1, 2014)

SOTGWarrior said:


> Does anyone know whether or not any of the aircraft in this thread actually got fielded?
> 
> https://shadowspear.com/vb/threads/secret-program-works-to-field-SEAL-plane.4231/
> 
> Seems like some of these would work well in the A10's place.


My understanding is no.
IIRC SOCOM wanted to put them in Afghanistan, but the Conventional (AF?) Forces said no.
I believe the program terminated.


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## BloodStripe (Sep 1, 2014)

Bummer.


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