Lockheed Martin Awarded Contract To Modify Mission Planning Software Of F-16 For India And Pakistan

Lockheed Martin has received a $64.3 million contract from the U.S. Air Force to update F-16 mission planning software used by foreign military sales customers.

The company will develop, integrate, test and deliver software updates for the F-16 aircraft’s Joint Mission Planning System Unique Planning Component/Mission Planning Environment, the Department of Defense said Friday.

The effort will support Bahrain, Bulgaria, Chile, Colombia, Croatia, Egypt, Greece, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Korea, Morocco, Oman, Pakistan, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Singapore, Slovakia, Slovenia, Taiwan, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Work under the FMS contract will take place in Owego, New York, through January 2029.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center issued the contract that comes with initial funds worth $17.2 million.

Work under the FMS contract will take place in Owego, New York, through January 2029.

Air Force Life Cycle Management Center issued the contract that comes with initial funds worth $17.2 million.

In October, L3Harris Technologies won $93 million F-16 self-protection systems. Even this deal involved FMS to support Air Forces of Chile, India, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Turkey, Iraq and Morocco.

Lockheed Martin offered India its newly configured F-21 jet to be manufactured indigenously in India in a bid to compete for $ 15 billion aircraft competition. The company had earlier pitched their F-16V5 Block 70/72 aircraft.

The F-21 is rumored to a rebranded version of the F-16V, the most advanced variant of the American jet. The F-21 has 12,000 hours of service life airframe as against F-16’s 8,000 hours. It reportedly has completely different airframe, weapons capability, engine matrix and availability of engine options.

Vivek Lall, former Vice-President of Strategy and Business Development of Lockheed Martin had earlier said that if India decides to buy the F-21 jets then the company will not sell them to anyone else and will set up an F-21 manufacturing facility with Tata Group and create an ecosystem for the overall growth of India’s defence manufacturing.

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