Lockheed awarded $32.9M deal to upgrade Taiwan's F-16s

The foreign military sales contract modifies a deal originally made in 2014 to supply the government of Taiwan with kits to upgrade their F-16 aircraft.

The Republic of China kicked off its modernization of 144 Lockheed Martin F-16 A/B Fighting Falcons -- a project dubbed the F-16 Peace Phoenix Program -- in January 2018.

This week's deal funds contractor logistics support, repair and return and manufacturing source management services for the F-16's Active Electronically Scanned Array Radar, or ESAR.

ESARs are computer-controlled antennae which allow the beam of radio waves to be steered in different directions without an operator physically touching the antenna. In December Northrop Grumman received $1 billion to produce ESARs for the Air Force's F-16 aircraft.

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