Egypt Intends To Purchase 24 More Lockheed Martin F-16s

Fort Worth, Texas, April 13th, 1999 -- The U.S. Department of Defense formally notified Congress on April 12 of Egypt's intent to purchase 24 more F-16 aircraft. This begins a 30-day review period.

The aircraft will be Block 40 F-16C/Ds, the same version as the last three orders from Egypt. This commonality provides advantages in logistics and training costs. The mix will be 12 single-seat F-16Cs and 12 two-seat F-16Ds.

A Letter of Offer and Acceptance (LOA) is planned to be signed during May. Production deliveries would begin in 2001 and continue for about 15 months.
This will be the sixth time Egypt has ordered F-16s. Deliveries in the fifth order are scheduled to begin this June, but are currently running ahead of schedule.

"Egypt’s purchase is critical to sustaining a healthy F-16 production rate in the 2001-2002 time frame," said Dain M. Hancock, president of Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems in Fort Worth, Texas. "Egypt is a very important customer to us, and this sixth order clearly demonstrates a high degree of satisfaction with the aircraft and with the support provided by Lockheed Martin and the U.S. Air Force."

The total estimated value of the new purchase is approximately $1 billion. This includes the aircraft, mission equipment, support equipment, spare parts, training, facilities upgrades and other associated items.

Worldwide, the Egyptian order will be the 39th repeat purchase of new F-16s by 14 countries. In addition, four countries have acquired F-16s from the U.S. Air Force inventory.

The F-16 is the world's most sought-after fighter. More than 3,900 have been delivered to the air forces of 19 countries from assembly lines in five countries. Additional sales are anticipated to be finalized later this year. Major upgrades for all F-16 versions are being incorporated or being developed to keep the fleet modern and fully supportable well into the next century.