Belgian Air Force sells 31 F-16s on parts market

[SABRE]

Thursday, December 23, 2004 - The Belgian ministry of defence started the dismantlement of their 31 oldest F-16 Fighting Falcons. Since their retirement from service, these jets have been stored in Weelde, near Antwerp.

The aircraft wil be sold on the replacement parts market.

The oldest jets have been stored in Weelde for over ten years already. They will be transported to an armament depot in Rocourt, where they will be stripped down.

The first of three batchs of F-16s has been transported in November already, the remaining two batches will follow in January and February.

Source: www.f-16.net
http://www.f-16.net/f-16_news_article1280.html
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R the F-16s PAF has been eyeing amongst them?

 

[P.A.F]

don't know but they will make good spare parts :

 

[highsea]

Those were old block 10's, not the MLU upgraded AC. I doubt the PAF was interested in them (other than for spares, as PAF mentioned).

 

[SABRE]

Hmm we could have bought them & upgraded them with the help of US if US agreed, unless they were completely junk & useless & were in no condition to fly or combat.
Than we could have used them for spare parts.

 

[adsH]

they were from 1979 i doubt they had any flying time on those airframes.

 

[Saleem Hatoum]

they were from 1979 i doubt they had any flying time on those airframes.

These F-16 had a t least 30% of life left on their airframes. The reason Belgium put them in storage was because of budget cuts.

 

[Salman78]

what a waste of such a fine piece of machinery.
airframe life can be prolonged with structural enhancements
almost everything from radar, avionics, engines etc can be upgraded.

it was just because of politics that they were scrapped up. everyone knows whose to blame...

 

[kilo_4que]

Naa i think its more like Belgium not being in Pakistans shoes. Pakistan has to make do with old fighters such as the Mirages and F16s and to further add, A5 Fantans and F6s but the the thing is that other nations such as beligium have no worries of scrapping them. First and foremost, they are an economically robust european country who can afford to induct top notch fighters rather than pay lots of money in reconditioning their current fleet. Further to add, they know for a fact that there are countries such as pakistan that are in dire demand for this beauty so know they have a potential customer to something they would have either scrapped or used for training purposes.

In case of Pakistan, i think its a good solution. Nearly half of the PAF F16 fleet is stranded due to lack of spare parts. N this also boild odwn to the tiniest of bolts. Likewise, taking the parts and reconditioning them would bel ike having next to new parts and furthermore, revitalised F16s.

 

[adsH]

These F-16 had a t least 30% of life left on their airframes. The reason Belgium put them in storage was because of budget cuts.

Any proof to that claim can we match up the Serials, these were the Oldest of blocks. i need to see where they stated 30 percent. These weren't even MLU block 20. it was more expensive to keep them in service, because the cost of flight hour goes up, as the airframe Ages. The Airframe was probably deemed ineffective. The Spares Parts may end up being sold to PAF.

 

[adsH]

In case of Pakistan, i think its a good solution. Nearly half of the PAF F16 fleet is stranded due to lack of spare parts. N this also boild odwn to the tiniest of bolts. Likewise, taking the parts and reconditioning them would bel ike having next to new parts and furthermore, revitalised F16s.

the Parts for the F-16 are filtering through from Lockheed, so its not about PAF being in Dire condition, its about where PAF can procure cheaper cost effective Parts; from the Original Manufacturer or the Second hand part market.

Eight of the PAF F-16 were canalized because (Replacements would be issued with the comprehensive MLU package) PAF couldn't procure irreplaceable parts from the Black market. Because of Situations like these, PAF came up with other solutions cost cutting and indigenous solutions (updates) and kept those F-16, 32 of them flying through the Worst storm that ever hit that Air Force. Well all thats over now.

 

[adsH]

they are an economically robust european country who can afford to induct top notch fighters rather than pay lots of money in reconditioning their current fleet.

Unfortunately no one can say that sure, Belgium has always relied on the UK or its larger Neighbors for defense, it now depends on Nato rather then the UK, for its defense, and no they can't go off buying new fighter, they are a tiny nation with other priorities that Pacifist protected Developed welfare Nations have. Developed here does not mean they are rich, means there infrastructure is stable.

 

[mysterious]

In case of Pakistan, i think its a good solution. Nearly half of the PAF F16 fleet is stranded due to lack of spare parts. N this also boild odwn to the tiniest of bolts. Likewise, taking the parts and reconditioning them would bel ike having next to new parts and furthermore, revitalised F16s.

What bull you're talking about here? Half of F-16 fleet stranded? 31 of the original number of 40 of those F-16s are in perfect condition and are flown regularly as part of numerous activities. And you say reconditioning costs more than buying an entirely new AC for which no logistics are in place? Well, you really need to learn more on these things before making such claims! Reconditioning and upgrading are almost alwayz cheaper than buying new AC (except when the optimum point of cost savings has been reached - this is where Avg. cost starts to go up along with marginal cost of maintaining the AC - some economics I did in high-skool helps understanding this issue perfectly well).