01-14-2024, 02:40 PM
I don't know what variant of F-16 will be given to Ukraine. Some F-16s in inventory are pretty antiquated.
Back in the day Lockheed Martin was refurbishing some F-16s for a NATO country. There were three electrical connectors my company was asked to bid on because the original connector manufacturer stopped making these products. The buyer was desperate because he couldn't get a bid to reverse engineer the connectors. I no-bid many times because it was a one-time order which would take up engineering resources. Finally I bid a ridiculous price with a ridiculous one-time engineering and tooling charge. The LM buyer jumped at the bid and we made a nice profit.
The point being it might be a nightmare to keep the F-16s maintained depending on what variant is used.
Back in the day Lockheed Martin was refurbishing some F-16s for a NATO country. There were three electrical connectors my company was asked to bid on because the original connector manufacturer stopped making these products. The buyer was desperate because he couldn't get a bid to reverse engineer the connectors. I no-bid many times because it was a one-time order which would take up engineering resources. Finally I bid a ridiculous price with a ridiculous one-time engineering and tooling charge. The LM buyer jumped at the bid and we made a nice profit.
The point being it might be a nightmare to keep the F-16s maintained depending on what variant is used.