The U.S. Air Force has just released an interesting series of shots of an F-16 from the 149th Fighter Wing, Texas Air National Guard out of the Iowa Air National Guard Paint Facility in Sioux City with what is said to be “a new, darker single color paint scheme […] that eliminates the older two-tone grey as the standard paint scheme for F-16’s in the U.S. Air Force.”
Indeed, the aircraft seems to show the Have Glass V, or “Have Glass 5th generation” paint, i.e. the evolution of the standard Have Glass program that saw all the F-16s receiving a two-tone grey color scheme made with a special radar-absorbing paint capable to reduce the aircraft Radar Cross Section. Indeed, all “Vipers” are covered with RAM (Radar Absorbent Material) made of microscopic metal grains that can degrade the radar signature of the aircraft. The Have Glass V is the latest version of the special paint, somehow similart to the one of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter that has been applied to U.S. F-16s since at least 2012 when it started to appear on the F-16CM (formerly CJ) Block 50 Fighting Falcon aircraft.
This week the Air National Guard Paint Facility in Sioux City, Iowa rolled out a uniquely painted U.S. Air Force F-16 Falcon Fighting Falcon, recently completed for the Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is a compact, multi-role fighter aircraft. It is highly maneuverable and has proven itself in air-to-air combat and air-to-surface attack. It provides a relatively low-cost, high-performance weapon system for the United States and allied nations.
In an air combat role, the F-16’s maneuverability and combat radius (distance it can fly to enter air combat, stay, fight and return) exceed that of all potential threat fighter aircraft. It can locate targets in all weather conditions and detect low flying aircraft in radar ground clutter. In an air-to-surface role, the F-16 can fly more than 500 miles (860 kilometers), deliver its weapons with superior accuracy, defend itself against enemy aircraft, and return to its starting point. An all-weather capability allows it to accurately deliver ordnance during non-visual bombing conditions.
The new, single color paint scheme is a recent departure from the older two-tone grey paint scheme normally associated with F-16’s that belong to the United States Air Force.
The paint facility recently finished painting the F-16 for the San Antonio Based, Texas Air National Guard unit and the aircraft is now ready to return to its home at Joint Base San Antonio.
