Huwebes, Setyembre 6, 2018

Did China ask Duterte not to buy the F-16 Vipers?



 By Mortz C. Ortigoza

Did President Rodrigo R. Duterte procrastinate in giving the go signal in the procurement of the most lethal technological advanced combat jets’ U.S made F-16 Viper because the Chinese asked him not to buy them?
In case the Philippines purchase the latest version of the fourth generation F-16V Block 70’s opus of Maryland based Lockheed Martin, the Philippines Air Force will be possessing, according to Wikipidea, the most modern aircraft in terms of avionics, radar, electronic warfare equipment, automated round collision avoidance system (AGCAS), cockpit and weapon systems.
Before we go to the boring details of the “Messenger of Death from the Sky”, here are the readers’ friendly features of the plane and the “politics” that surround it.
Image result for f-16 vipers
The F-16V (Viper) is the latest evolution of the F-16
                                                                             
The F-16V is equipped with an upgraded programmable displays generator, a Link-16 theatre data link where for example it can connect with the enemies’ location thrown to her by either of the two South Korean made frigates we bought and shoots SIMULTANEOUSLY through its advanced Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar with its  AGM 119 those absconding Chinese warships in the Scarborough and those enemies at the artificial islets, their submarines, and their cruising missiles with other  missiles it carries for those specification.
The plane’s carry the AGM-119/AGM-84/AGM-65G anti-ship missiles.
An example of AGM-119 is the Penguin anti-ship missile designated by the U.S. military. It is a Norwegian passive IR seeker -based short-to-medium range anti-ship guided missile.
The Penguin, according to Wikipidea, can be fired singly or in coordinated-arrival salvoes. Once launched the F-16 Viper is free to turn-away as the missile is inertially guided until the autonomous terminal homing phase.
The bad ass Viper is effing deadly thanks to the modern technological marvel.

The AESA radar aboard the aircraft enables all-weather targeting, and offers high-resolution detection and imaging of land-based targets. The phased array radar allows the simultaneous application of air-to-air and air-to-surface modes.
The Northrop Grumman’s APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) AESA potency to the unsophisticated means spikes the Viper’s capabilities versus increasingly sophisticated threats that include new enemy cruise missiles as well as evermore-capable adversary fighters such as the Chinese's Sukhoi Su-35S Flanker E.
Compared to the F-16’s existing APG-68 mechanically scanned radar, the APG-83—which leverages technology from the fifth generation stealth jet’s F-35  ’s APG-81—can detect, track and identify greater numbers of targets much faster and at much longer ranges.