At 8:40 a.m. on 31 January, an F-16C fighter plane of the US military stationed in South Korea crashed into the sea near Gunsanji Island in North Jeolla Province, South Korea. It's a pity that the pilot of this F-16 fighter jet ejected and escaped in time before the plane crashed into the sea!
This is the second F-16 fighter jet crashed by the US military in South Korea in two months. The last time was on the morning of December 11 last year, when an F-16C fighter jet of the US military stationed in South Korea crashed during a military exercise in South Korea. The F-16 fighter jet fell in an accident during training in the waters southwest of the US military base in South Korea. On May 6, 2023, another F-16 fighter jet of the U.S. military stationed in South Korea crashed in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, and the pilot narrowly escaped.
Just after New Year's Day 2024, the U.S. military dropped a B-1B "Lancer" strategic bomber, followed by the crash of the F-16 fighter jet of the U.S. military stationed in South Korea, continuing to maintain a strong and powerful crash momentum.
The F-16 fighter of the United States was developed in the 70s of the last century, and was originally designed to form a light and heavy match with the F-15 fighter, the top air superiority fighter of the US Air Force, and complement each other's advantages. The F-16 fighter is lighter, cheaper, and better suited for a variety of missions than the F-15 fighter. The US Air Force has achieved a full-fledged transition to a fourth-generation fighter with the help of a large number of rapidly produced F-16 fighters.
By 1988, the U.S. Air Force had 24 squadrons of F-16 fighters, about 1,300 F-16 fighters. After the fourth-generation fighters represented by the F-16 and F-15 entered service, the United States quickly dominated the skies of the world. For more than 50 years, Lockheed has delivered 4,588 F-16 fighter jets to the world.
The F-16 fighter features a number of revolutionary designs, such as wing-body blends, bubble canopies, sidestick operations, and high-G reclining seats. Even in order to improve subsonic maneuverability, the belly pitot tube air intake was adopted, focusing on trans/subsonic air combat maneuverability, and the performance requirements for supersonic air combat and volleys were abandoned.
Located right next to the west coast of South Korea, South Korea's Gunsan Air Base is an airfield jointly used by the South Korean Air Force and the U.S. Army's 7th Air Force in South Korea, and is one of the largest air bases in Asia. THE U.S. MILITARY HAS STATIONED THE 35TH AND 80TH FIGHTER SQUADRONS UNDER THE 8TH WING OF THE 7TH AIR FORCE AT THE GUNSAN BASE, EQUIPPED WITH A TOTAL OF 36 F-16C/D FIGHTERS, THAT IS, THE F-16 BLOCK 40 BATCH FIGHTERS. With the aging of the fleet of these F-16s of the US military stationed in South Korea, it is the general trend to replace them with F-35 stealth fighters, which is a big threat to us.
The production time of the F-16 BLOCK 40 batch of fighters is about 1988~1995, and the age of the aircraft has been 28~36 years ago. Although the quality of American fighters is relatively good and the life of the airframe is extremely long, the failure rate of F-16 fighters that are about 30 years old will become higher and higher if they are not undergoing major repairs and refurbishments.
The United States has constantly stirred up disputes in various parts of the world, and the crash of the fighter plane is also self-inflicted. The United States relied on a strong military to support its global hegemony, and the frequent crashes of fighter jets also marked the beginning of the loosening of the foundations of the Empire State Building. A large number of crashes have caused immeasurable losses to the US Air Force and, more importantly, have caused widespread concern about the reliability and safety of the US military's weapons and equipment.
In recent years, the US Air Force has participated in a large number of combat operations in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and other places, and these fast-paced, high-intensity operations have had a great impact on the pile body and life of the fighters.
Since last year, there have been dozens of major flight accidents in the US military, and the number of casualties has reached dozens. The US military has successively crashed UH-60 "Black Hawk" helicopters, F-35 stealth fighters, V-22 Osprey tiltrotors, F-16 fighters, and B-1B strategic bombers. The U.S. Navy alone has 15 of the worst Class A aviation accidents, which equates to one tragic crash every month.
At present, the US Air Force F-16 fleet has been relatively old, many fighters were produced in the 80s or 90s, although there are improvements, but after all, the aircraft is older, if the flight missions are frequent, the training intensity in peacetime is large, and the frequency of sorties is high, it is not surprising that there are accidents. Aviation units of this state are bound to have more crashes. I wish them more and more falls!