Morocco ends 20-year search to find a fighter

This covers the supply of 24 F-16 Block 52 aircraft, along with associated support equipment and alternate mission equipment.

The Kingdom of Morocco first looked at the F-16 as a potential and partial replacement for its F-5Es and Mirage F1s in 1989, when the country was expected to purchase 24 used F-16A/Bs, armed with AIM-9 Sidewinders for air-to-air use (but with no BVR armament) and with AGM-65 Maverick ASMs for the air-to-ground role.

Algerian re-equipment, most notably replacing ageing MiG-21s and MiG-23s with a three-squadron wing of MiG-29s, made the new fighter a higher priority.

A contract for 20 ex-USAF F-16A/B aircraft was signed with the US government in November 1991, with Saudi Arabia and the UAE providing the funding. The deal fell through, however, and Morocco turned its attention to the Mirage 2000 – with Dassault offering an attractive package of new Mirage 2000s and an ambitious upgrade for the existing Mirage F1s, to be led by SAGEM.

The acquisition of Sukhoi Su-30MKAs and MiG-29SMTs by Algeria in 2007 revitalized the search for a new fighter, and initially Dassault’s new-generation Rafale seemed likely to take the order, even though it was more expensive than the F-16 packages offered by the USA.

The initial US offer was for 36 second-hand F-16s at a cost of only $2.4 Bn US (plus weapons), which significantly undercut the French offers of 18 Rafales for $2.6 Bn, or 24 aircraft for $3.2 Bn. The US offer later changed to be based around the supply of 24 new advanced model F-16s.

Many believed that the Rafale remained Morocco’s preferred choice, until the kingdom was given contradictory pricing by Dassault and by the DGA (France’s arms export agency), and when the French Government tried to tie the Rafale deal to French solutions to other Moroccan defence requirements.

Others blame Morocco’s change of mind on a dawning realisation that the latest F-16 models actually offer the capabilities that it requires, while some of these are still only aspirations on Dassault’s only partly-funded development roadmap for the Rafale. This leaves some doubt as to whether Dassault could actually deliver a Rafale to the specification that Morocco required.

Others saw the decision as marking a desire to strengthen strategic and political links with the USA, while a €500 million order for a French FREMM frigate smoothed ruffled French feathers after the rejection of the Rafale.

But for whatever reason, Morocco turned to Lockheed-Martin for its new fighter, selecting the Block 52+ Advanced F-16C/D, as used by the IDF/AF, the Hellenic Air Force, the Republic of Korea Air Force, the Polish Air Force, and the Republic of Singapore Air Force.

The Block 52 differs from the otherwise similar Block 50 in being powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 engine, with a Normal Shock Inlet (known as the small mouth inlet), rather than the General Electric F110-GE-129 engine (which uses the ‘big mouth’ Modular Common Inlet Duct.

The F100-PW-229 was specifically designed to reduce the costs of engine ownership and this was accomplished by inserting fifth-generation fighter engine technologies developed for the F-22’s F119 engine and the F-35’s F135 engine. The engine inspection interval has been increased from 4,300 to 6,000 cycles and the durability of key components has been improved, all while maintaining a thrust rating of 29,100-lb st.

The Moroccan F-16 will use Northrop Grumman's AN/APG-68(V)9 multimode radar. This detects airborne targets at 30 per cent greater range than the previous F-16 radars, and searches a larger volume of sky. The radar has improvements in functionality and tracking capability, including an ability to track four targets instead of two in the so-called Situation Awareness Mode (a search-while-track mode).

The (V)9 radar offers a five-fold increase in processing speed and a ten-times increase in memory, allowing expanded modes. The new radar has an improved Ground Moving Target Indication mode, and features a synthetic-aperture mode for high-resolution ground mapping and for the delivery and guidance of precision, all-weather, stand-off air-to-ground weapons

The AN/APG-69(V)9 uses commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) technology to significantly improve supportability and reliability, and the new version is claimed to offer a 400-hour mean time between failures (an increase of 50 per cent).

The Block 52+ has an upgraded landing gear, allowing operation at higher all-up weights than is possible with older sub-variants up to a maximum gross take-off weight of 52,000 pounds. The aircraft has provision for conformal fuel tanks (CFTs) attached to the upper fuselage. The CFTs can accommodate an extra 450 gallons (more than 3.000 pounds) of fuel, increasing range by 20-40 per cent, depending on aircraft configuration, payload and sortie profile.

The Advanced Block 50/52 variant is also certified to carry big Northrop Grumman 600-gallon under-wing fuel tanks instead of the normal 370-gallon wing tanks.

The Moroccan aircraft will use Lockheed Martin’s advanced countermeasures electronic system (ACES) consisting of a new, all-digital, low-cost, high-performance AN/ALR-56M radar warning receiver, a new digital RF memory-based (DRFM) jammer and AN/ALE-47 countermeasures dispensing systems, as well as an advanced AN/APX-113 IFF interrogator/transponder.

Morocco will take delivery of four Link-16 multifunctional information distribution system (MIDS) low volume terminals, and two link-16 ground stations with its F-16s, allowing the air force to explore net centric operations. The aircraft will also be delivered with six joint helmet mounted cueing systems, and four AN/ARC-238 single channel ground and airborne radio system (SINCGARS) radios with secure HAVE QUICK I/II. 

The F-16s will be delivered with a wide range of weapons, targeting pods and sensor systems.

For air-to-air use, the aircraft will be armed with an initial batch of 30 AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM missiles (an upgrade from C-5 to C-7 having been approved in November 2009) and 60 AIM-9M Sidewinders.

For air-to-ground missions, the aircraft will use 53 AGM-65 Maverick ASMs, consisting of eight imaging infrared (IIR) AGM-65D/G missiles, and 45 TV-guided AGM-65H missiles.

Three hundred ‘dumb’ Mk 82 bombs will be delivered, primarily for training, along with 280 laser-guided bombs (LGBs). The latter will include 20 GBU-24 laser-guidance and fin kits to convert 2,000-lb bombs into Paveway III LGBs, as well as 50 GBU-10 kits to transform 2,000-lb bombs with penetrating warheads into Paveway II LGBs for use against hardened targets. There will also be 150 GBU-12 kits to turn 500 lb bombs into Paveway II LGBs, and 60 Enhanced GBU-12 PAVEWAY II bombs, with dual-mode GPS/laser guidance. The air force will also receive 50 JDAM tail kits (20 GBU-31s for 500-lb Mk 82 bombs, and 30 GBU-38s for 2,000-lb Mk 84 bombs).

For suppression of enemy air defences (SEAD), the F-16s will be delivered with 20 AGM-88B/C HARM anti-radiation missiles.

To help deliver all of these precision weapons, the F-16s will be equipped with 12 AN/AAQ-33 sniper targeting pods. Sniper incorporates a high-resolution, advanced mid-wave FLIR and a dual-mode laser, and gives target detection and identification ranges. For reconnaissance, the Moroccan F-16s will use four Goodrich Corporation DB-110 airborne reconnaissance pods, which are being delivered with suitable data links, and mobile and fixed ground stations and mission planners.

Essentially similar to the RAF’s RAPTOR recce pod, the F-16 system is in service in Poland and Greece, and transforms the Fighting Falcon into a formidable tactical and real-time reconnaissance asset.

Deliveries of the aircraft are believed to have been pushed back from 2010 to “beyond 2011”, but the Lockheed Martin charm offensive in Morocco is well under way, underpinned by the participation of an Air National Guard F-16C in the recent Aero Expo at Marrakech.

The F-16 order marks the start of a deeper relationship with the USA and the Royal Moroccan Air Force has also placed an order for 24 T-6C trainers. These aircraft have an integrated digital glass cockpit with a HUD, an up-front control panel (UFCP), three multifunction displays (MFDs) and full hands-on throttle and stick (HOTAS) controls.

The C-model is also equipped with under-wing hardpoints, to allow the carriage of external fuel tanks or light attack weapons.

The Moroccans have also ordered four C-27J Spartan tactical transport aircraft.