Turkish Air Force has been an F-16C/D operator since 1987. With the exception of the first 8 aircraft, all Turkish Vipers have been locally manufactured in Turkey by TAI. While the earlier examples have been assembled from kits provided by General Dynamics (later Lockheed-Martin), later examples had a significant percentage of locally manufactured structural parts.
With a total of 240 aircraft delivered, the Turkish Air Force has one of the largest F-16 fleets outside the US and Turkey has been among the first US allies to use some of the newest F-16 related equipment such as the LANTIRN system, AIM-120 AMRAAM, AGM-88 HARM and JDAM. Turkish Vipers have flown hundreds of combat sorties in UN/NATO operations in Bosnia and Kosovo. With the arrival of the latest batch of advanced Block 50+ airframes in 2011 and the advent of new, indigenous Turkish systems like the SOM cruise missile, HGK GPS-guided bomb and ASELFLIR targeting/designation pod; the Turkish F-16 fleet continues to evolve and gain improved capabilities.
Our goal in preparing these notes is the clarification of the differences and equipment of Turkish Vipers from a modeler's point of view. With decals from Caracal Models, you already have everything you need with respect to markings. For everything else, we list sources and modeling ideas so you can build an accurate Turkish Air Force F-16.
This section describes Turkish Air Force F-16C Block 30/40 as they looked BEFORE the fleet-wide CCIP upgrades which was completed in 2015.
Pre-CCIP Turkish Air Force F-16C Block 30/40 aircraft look very similar externally. Like all Block 30 and Block 40s, they are equipped with the GE F-110 engine. With the exception of the few examples in the first batch, all have the later “big mouth” MCID intake. The aircraft have been delivered with extended brake parachute (parabrake) housing to facilitate landing on some Turkish air bases with shorter runways. Both blocks have been equipped with the AN/ALQ-178 ECM (electronic countermeasures) suite, which required the addition of two RWR antenna on both sides of the parabrake housing(1), enlarged nav lights (2) and a small antenna under the intake(3).
In 1/48 scale, we recommend the Tamiya F-16CG/CJ as the base kit. Wolfpack makes a resin parabrake housing set (item #48023) which includes the ECM antenna and enlarged nav lights. The Kinetic F-16C/D kits are also a good source for these parts: the parabrake housing parts are C14 & C16, the ECM antenna parts are F7 and I9, and enlarged nav lights are I11. These sprues are common to most Kinetic F-16C/D Block 30/40 kits, therefore it is possible to build a Turkish F-16C Block 30/40 'out of the box' with many Kinetic F-16 kits.
The small ECM antenna under the intake is also installed on Israeli F-16I Sufa, and other similar F-16D Block 50+ aircraft such as Polish F-16D Block 52. The necessary part can be found in many newer F-16C/D Block 50+ boxings of the Hasegawa and Kinetic kits.
In 1/72 scale, we recommend the Revell F-16C as the base kit. The Revell kit comes with an extended parabrake housing and enlarged nav lights, but not everything you will need for a Turkish Block 30/40. The newer Academy F-16CG/CJ kit has all the needed parts and can be built out of the box as a Turkish F-16C Block 30/40.
This section describes Turkish Air Force F-16C Block 30/40 as they looked AFTER the fleet-wide CCIP upgrades which was completed in 2015.
The CCIP upgrade program brought the Turkish F-16 fleet closer to the standard CCIP configuration Vipers operated by USAF. The most prominent external difference is the addition of low-profile AIFF (advanced IFF) antenna in front of the cockpit. The ECM antenna and all other external differences unique to the Turkish aircraft have remained the same.
In 1/48 scale, our recommendation is still the Tamiya kit. Both Tamiya and Kinetic kits provide the low-profile AIFF antenna, making it fairly straightforward to model this version.
In 1/72 scale, Revell and Tamiya kits have the low-profile AIFF antenna needed.
This section describes Turkish Air Force F-16C Block 50 as they looked BEFORE the fleet-wide CCIP upgrades which was completed in 2015.
During this period, Turkish Air Force F-16C Block 50 aircraft looked very similar to USAF F-16CJ. These aircraft were not equipped with the parabrake housing, and there were no external ECM antenna either. The only major visual difference is the advanced AIFF antenna ('bird slicers') in front of the windshield.
The AIFF antenna on pre-CCIP Turkish F-16C/D Block 50 was placed on a raised platform; and are of a different type than the one used on European MLU and USAF F-16 ADF airplanes. This antenna belongs to the AN/APX-107, used only on Korean and Turkish F-16s. It is often confused with the somewhat similar AN/APX-109 antenna used on F-16ADF.
In 1/48 scale, we recommend the Tamiya F-16CG/CJ as the base kit. We are not aware of an aftermarket source for the correct AIFF antenna, but it can be found in all Kinetic F-16 kits as part C25. In 1/72 scale, the AIFF antenna can be found in Academy and Kinetic kits.
This section describes Turkish Air Force F-16C Block 50 as they looked AFTER the fleet-wide CCIP upgrades which was completed in 2015.
With the CCIP upgrade, a typical Turkish F-16C Block 50 now almost exactly like a CCIP-upgraded USAF F-16C Block 50. The high-profile AIFF antenna was replaced by a low-profile antenna, as described in the post-CCIP F-16C Block 30/40 section above.
to be continued (February 24, 2016)