F-16A ADF

☃☃

Description

The ' is a rank American jet fighter with a battle rating of (AB), (RB), and (SB). It was introduced in Update "Apex Predators".

General info

Flight performance

Describe how the aircraft behaves in the air. Speed, manoeuvrability, acceleration and allowable loads - these are the most important characteristics of the vehicle.

Characteristics	Max speed (km/h at 10,973 m)		Max altitude (metres)	Turn time (seconds)		Rate of climb (metres/second)		Take-off run (metres)
	AB	RB		AB	RB	AB	RB
Stock	2,093	2,063		20.3	20.6	252.7	240.2	___
Upgraded	___	___		__._	__._	__._	__._

Details

Features
Combat flaps	Take-off flaps	Landing flaps	Air brakes	Arrestor gear	Drogue chute
X	✓	✓	✓	✓	X

Limits
Wings (km/h)	Gear (km/h)	Flaps (km/h)			Max Static G
		Combat	Take-off	Landing	+	-
		N/A	___	___	~__	~__

Optimal velocities (km/h)
Ailerons	Rudder	Elevators	Radiator
< ___	< ___	< ___	N/A

Engine performance

Engine			Aircraft mass
Engine name		Number	Basic mass		Wing loading (full fuel)
Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220		1	_,___ kg		___ kg/m2
Engine characteristics			Mass with fuel (no weapons load)			Max Gross Weight
Weight (each)	Type		_m fuel	__m fuel	__m fuel
1,470 kg	___		_,___ kg	_,___ kg	_,___ kg	_,___ kg
Maximum engine thrust @ 0 m (RB/SB)			Thrust to weight ratio @ 0 m (___%/WEP)
Condition	100%	___%/WEP	_m fuel	__m fuel	__m fuel	MGW
Stationary	___ kgf	___ kgf	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__
Optimal	___ kgf (_ km/h)	___ kgf (_ km/h)	_.__	_.__	_.__	_.__

Survivability and armour

Examine the survivability of the aircraft. Note how vulnerable the structure is and how secure the pilot is, whether the fuel tanks are armoured, etc. Describe the armour, if there is any, and also mention the vulnerability of other critical aircraft systems.

Modifications and economy

Crew training

Experts

Aces

Research Aces

Reward for battleAB / RB / SB

/ /  %

/ /  %

Modifications

Armaments

Ballistic Computer
CCIP (Guns)	CCIP (Rockets)	CCIP (Bombs)	CCRP (Bombs)

Offensive armament

The F-16A ADF is armed with:

• A choice between two presets:
  • 1 x 20 mm M61A1 cannon, wing root-mounted (512 rpg)
  • 1 x 20 mm M61A1 cannon + 60 x countermeasures

Suspended armament

The F-16A ADF can be outfitted with the following ordnance presets:

• 1 x 300 gal drop tank
• 2 x AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles
• 6 x AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles
• 2 x AIM-7M Sparrow missiles

Custom loadout options

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7
AIM-7M Sparrow missiles			1		1
AIM-9L Sidewinder missiles	1	1	1		1	1	1
300 gal drop tanks				1

Usage in battles

Describe the tactics of playing in the aircraft, the features of using aircraft in a team and advice on tactics. Refrain from creating a "guide" - do not impose a single point of view, but instead, give the reader food for thought. Examine the most dangerous enemies and give recommendations on fighting them. If necessary, note the specifics of the game in different modes (AB, RB, SB).

Pros and cons

Summarize and briefly evaluate the vehicle in terms of its characteristics and combat effectiveness. Mark its pros and cons in the bulleted list. Try not to use more than 6 points for each of the characteristics. Avoid using categorical definitions such as "bad", "good" and the like - use substitutions with softer forms such as "inadequate" and "effective".

Pros:

Cons:

History

The need for a new air superiority fighter was first brought to the attention of the US government during the Vietnam war, after F-4 phantom II's began taking heavy losses. The head of the Department of defense during most of the Vietnam war, Robert Magnamera, decided that dog fighting was simply obsolight, and put out an order for a new fighter jet with focus on weaponry, and versatility. The result of this order was the General Dynamics f111 Aardvark. which was nothing less than a huge, overweight, swing wing fying brick. While on paper the deign was most certainly impressive, it simply was not able to compete with mig21s, due to the unreliability of its weapons. Matter of fact, according to a post war analysis, only 15 percent of all aim9 sidewinders fired hit their target, the AIM-7 sparrow was even worse, with only 8% of those missiles hitting their target. In other worlds, only 1 in 10 missiles hit their target on average. That means, with the Aardvark which could only carry 8 , even if the pilot survived long enough to get all their missiles off, statistically speaking, all 8 of those missiles were likely to miss. Let alone, in a dogfight, not only did the Aardvark have a turning radios, comparable to the titanic, but it did not even have a internal gun, meaning that if and when it got into a turn fight with the comparatively nimble mig21, it would be shot down just like that. Indeed, it was seemingly obvious that this new multi-million dollar aircraft could not compete, however the government having just spent hundreds-of-millions of dollars on the project struggled to accept this. The thought of starting again from scratch was not seriously considered until a meeting in a bar, when John Boyd ran into Harry Hillaker, an aeronautical engineer who was the lead project engineer for general dynamics, and the man most responsible for the F-111. John Boyd promptly said "My name is John Boyd and I am a fighter pilot and I understand that you worked on the F-111, and what I want to know is why you guys built a god damn 85 thousand pound airplane and called it a fighter" Naturally Hillaker thought he was just some hothead who didn't know what he was talking about, but none the less, Hillaker did one of the most respectable things a man could do, he pulled out a chair and said "Sit down John" and a few minutes later they found themselves in deep agreement frantically scratching down ideas on cocktail napkins, talking about drag pullers thrust to weight rations lift coefficients. To Hillakers astonishment, this was not just some loudmouthed fighter jock, Boyd was talking to him in mathematics, and he know what he was talking about, and to Boyd's amazement, Hillaker was not just some puffed up company hack, he too wanted to build the best fighter aircraft possible, and knew full well, that his F-111 was wrong for every single reason that Boyd had flung at him. Now all they had to do, was convince the Pentagon that their now shiny fighter jet was in fact terrible, and that that if they were to have any chance against huge number of better soviet planes they would have to start again from scratch. So, Boyd had a meeting with general Walter Camble Sweeney Junior. Boyd had prepared an EM (Energy Maneuverability) brief, that would take about 5 to 6 hours to deliver, but when he arrived at the meeting, he was told that he had an allocated 20 minutes to speak with the general. He wasted no time, and began the brief by explaining that his energy maneuverability theory was simply a way to quantify a fighter aircraft's performance. He showed comparisons of where American jet aircraft excelled in blue, and where soviet aircraft excelled in red. there were just 2 things in blue, being altitude and speed, and the rest was a sea of red. While Boyd remained calm, the generals face just became more and more grimacing as he was being told that american aircraft were simply outclassed in most every aspect by soviet fighters. When the time ended Boyd turned to Sweeney ans said "Unless you have any questions General, that will be all." Sweeney looked like a man being woken up from a nightmare. "where do you think your going" he said. "Sir your agent said we had 20 minutes" replied Boyd "We've used up our time" Sweeney stared at him for a moment, and then back at the slides showing that the Russians had jets that were enormously better in almost every way. "Continue the brief" he said, then turned to his agent and instructed "cancel all my appointments for today." After several hours, the general had had enough, and told him to pack up for the day, and meet him again at 8 am the following morning, but before that he asked why there where no slides on the new F-111, had he not had time to run the data yet? Boyd had been waiting for just this moment, he advanced the projector several places and both men looked up at the screen, at the EM diagram for the General Dynamics F-111 Aardvark. Boyd didn't say a word, he didn't have to, the data was indisputable. The screen compared the F-111 to every jet in the soviet inventory, the slide was solid red, everywhere, against everything, no matter the altitude no matter the speed, it would lose in every engagement. Unlike many other decorated officers would have, Sweeney saw what was there, not what he wanted to be there, so he asked Boyd, "Major, based on your extensive research, any recommendations on what to do with this aircraft?" Boyd replied, "Well, If it where up to me, id pull the wings off, remove the bomb bay, put benches in it, paint the thing yellow, and turn it into a high speed taxi." Boyd proved that the most important thing for a fighter jet to have was the ability to change its energy state as quickly as possible, so that if its best turning speed is 450 knots, then it can change its speed to 450 knots and keep it there for a sustained period of time. It is indeed so that that conversation sparked the idea that allowed the f16 to come into the world. It was a couple years after this meeting when the order for a new lightweight close-range fighter aircraft was put out in 1972, and it officially entered service several years after this meeting when the F-16 entered service. The first operational F-16A ADF was delivered in January 1979 to the 388th Tactical Fighter Wing at Hill AFB. The F-16 was built under an agreement between the U.S. and four NATO countries: Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Norway. These countries jointly produced with the U.S. an initial 348 F-16s for their air forces. There were questions about the design of the f-16, largely due to the fact that the YF-16 became the world’s first aircraft to be aerodynamically unstable by design. With a rearward center of gravity, its natural tendency is to nose up rather than down. However any concerns were quickly quelled after testing. After it entered service it was immediately recognized as a excellent aircraft with great weaponry and incredible maneuverability. To this day the f-16 has never been shot down, and it serves in the air force of over 10 countries. In the USAF, the F-35 ultimately replaced the F-16, however it is still recognized as one of the greatest fighters of all time.

Excellent additions to the article would be video guides, screenshots from the game, and photos.

See also

Links to the articles on the War Thunder Wiki that you think will be useful for the reader, for example:

• reference to the series of the aircraft;
• links to approximate analogues of other nations and research trees.

External links

Paste links to sources and external resources, such as:

• topic on the official game forum;
• other literature.

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