Lockheed Martin gets $32.9 million for Taiwan’s F-16 fighters upgrade

The U.S. Department of Defense awarded Lockheed Martin a $32.9 million hybrid cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price modification to previously-awarded contract for contractor logistics support to the Taiwan F-16 Peace Phoenix Rising program.

This modification provides for contractor logistics support, repair and return and diminishing manufacturing source management services for Taiwan F-16s Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar.

Work on this contract will be performed in Taiwan, with an expected completion date of May 31, 2022.

According to The Diplomat, the Phoenix Rising Project was launched in 2016 with the purpose of upgrading 144 ROCAF A/B Fighting Falcon combat aircraft to the F-16V configuration by 2023. AIDC is Lockheed Martin’s local project partner. Overall cost for the Phoenix Rising Project is estimated at around $5.3 billion.

The Phoenix Rising Project also foresees the procurement of additional beyond-visual-range (BVR) air-to-air missiles form the U.S., as well as domestically-produced weapons systems such as the soon to be operationalized Sky Sword II medium-range air-to-air missile or Sky Sword.

“Taiwan’s F-16 fleet is equipped with the AIM-9 Sidewinder, a short-range air-to-air missile and the [BVR] AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile, or AMRAAM,” I wrote last year. “Of the latter, Taiwan has a stockpile of a little over 300, which yields a ratio of around 2 AMRAAMs per F-16.”