“What makes a Block 70 a 70? Let’s start with structure first. So the Block 70, structurally, is based on a Block 50, with one exception. We’ve incorporated full-scale durability testing results into the design of the Block 70 to change the service life from 8000 hours to 12000 hours. So structurally, it is physically different from a Block 50,” he said.
‘Elvis’ explained further, “It is not a Block 60. A 60 is only operated by one customer (U.A.E.) and there are specific structural differences between a 50, a 60 and a 70. It was specifically designed for that customer and specifically designed to accommodate a GE-132 engine. It was also designed to house a customer-unique electronic warfare and radar suite — liquid-cooled AESA radar.”
“If you look at the U.A.E. customer’s airplane, you’ll see that it’s got air scoots and pumps that aren’t present in normal F-16s. And the reason those are there is to accommodate the electronic warfare suite and the liquid cooling for the AESA radar,” he said.
Paint-job
The Block 70 also has a distinctive paint-job called Uniform HAVEGLASS that serves two purposes.
“One of the things they did on the Block 60s — was they did a coating on the Block 60 that’s got the texture of about 40 grit sandpaper — 60 grit sandpaper. It’s very, very rough. It was designed for RCS (Radar Cross Section) reduction. Since then for the Block 70 what we’ve done — from the exterior, if you look at the normal F-16 — most of the world’s F-16s — although they have country-unique paint jobs and in this case we made up an Indian paint-job, one of the thing the United States Air Force — particularly our Air National Guard, has started to implement is this coating called Uniform HAVEGLASS,” said Balserak.
“And the Uniform HAVEGLASS does two things. What Uniform HAVEGLASS does — it is also a radar cross section reducing coating to go on to the outside of the airplane — that’s number one. But the number two reason — and the reason the Guard really likes this is that it’s significantly less maintenance intensive than the old traditional coatings. And that’s why they started to do it. So if you look at — if you go online and look at some of our Air National Guard airplanes a lot of them are starting to put this paint scheme — this Uniform HAVEGLASS on the airplane and this is what we intend to offer India,” he explained.