Page 74 - Air Forces Monthly - September 2017

FLIGHT TEST FOCUS

As well as the F-16I Sufa the Flight Test Center
operates examples of the F-16C Block 30, F-16D
Block 30 and F-16D Block 40. This is two-seater
F-16D Barak 601 (c/n CK-01, FMS 90-0875).

special operation demanding their presence distribute and brief them to the rest of the Special Sufa
they will return to them as ordinary aircrew. IAF’s squadrons. Frontline pilots regularly Since the unit’s expected to work with every
The Center also incorporates a large, attend briefings – including flight instructors airborne platform in the IAF inventory, it
modern maintenance division, assigned from the Hatzerim Flight Academy, for borrows equipment from across the air
to expose every system to the toughest whom the Flight Test Center evaluates force as required. However, the importance
conditions to assess how to handle it training platforms and recommends types. of the fighter fleet is such that F-15s and
from a sustainment standpoint. The Center’s remit also includes evaluating F-16s are permanently assigned to it.
After the results of each test are processed, enemy aircraft captured by the Israel The ‘Vipers’ represent different
evaluated and written up as new procedures Defense Forces – work that’s yielded priceless variants of the aircraft in IAF service:
and methods, it’s up to the Center to intelligence for the IAF and its allies. F-16C Block 30, F-16D Block 30,
F-16D Block 40 and F-16I Sufa.
MiG-29s over a similarly advanced platform to serve
With the arrival of the F-16I, the IAF lacked
Israel as a ‘surrogate’ for systems testing. The
Center’s solution was to adapt an existing
F-16C, maintenance personnel taking
F-16C Barak 301 and making numerous
internal and external modifications
to replicate the two-seat Sufa.
They installed avionics, flight control
systems and conformal fuel tanks,
essentially producing a single-seat
F-16I, the modifications enabling test
work to continue without depleting
the frontline Sufa squadrons.
In recent years the IAF has been through
a major modernisation, taking on new
platforms for various missions. It
began with the C-130J for the transport
IAF
fleet and continued with the M-346.
During the 1990s, Western intelligence borrowed three MiG-29s from Poland in 1997, At the end of last year the IAF received
indicated that the Soviet-designed MiG-29 the Flight Test Center then evaluating their its first two F-35Is, which are assigned
off ered various advantages in aerial combat manoeuvrability and air-to-ground and air- to the Flight Test Center and fully
over advanced Western fi ghters. Beginning to-air capabilities. Tests included simulated instrumented. With plans to incorporate
with the 1991 Gulf War, US and allied air aerial combat with frontline IAF squadrons. increasing levels of indigenous avionics
forces began to encounter the jet in combat. One of the MiGs even carried the Center’s and weapons on the type, the facility
To study the fi ghter’s capabilities, Israel emblem during its stay in Israel.
will be kept busy in the years to come. AFM
Below: F-16I Sufa 401 has telemetry markings
applied to an underwing hardpoint, suggesting
recent stores separation trials. This aircraft, c/n
YD-1, FMS 00-1001, was the fi rst F-16I delivered.

74 // SEPTEMBER 2017 #354 www.airforcesmonthly.com