Air Warriors (2014–…): Season 4, Episode 1 - F-16 Fighting Falcon - full transcript

[ENGINES ROAR]

Narrator:
Pilots call it the Viper.

If you get too close,
It bites.

Matt Aires:
The F-16 can carry every Air to ground

weapon that the Unites States
Air Force Employs.

Narrator: Small, Fast,

and agile enough
to turn on a dime.

Sonny Blinkinsop:F-16 is a great airplane
when you're being shot at.

Narrator: The F-16 is built
to get in your face

before your even know it's there.

Rebecca Grant: Everything about the F-16



was designed for a hard charging,
Maneuvering dogfight.

Narrator: It's an aircraft that's
been fighting, since before it was born.

Pierre Sprey: The air force attitude was:

We don't want to do anything
with this airplane.

Narrator: Its goal:

Becoming the best multirole
fighter on the planet.

[Applause]

2003.

The United States accuses
Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein

of stockpiling weapons of mass destruction.

George W. Bush:
The dictator of Iraq is not disarming.

To the contrary:

He is deceiving.

In March, The US and its allies, surprise
Iraq with a punishing air war.



US bombers drop over ten thousand
tons of ordnance into Baghdad.

They call the campaign,
"Shock and Awe".

Donald Rumsfeld: In, in total
dominance of the air.

And it, it is not air superiority,
it's dominance.

[YELLING "Allahu Akbar"]

The Aftermath does not go smoothly.

Iraqis dig in, hard.

Victor Renuart: We have a number of areas
throughout the country,

that are not yet, stabilized.

Narrator: Coalition troops
patrol the land.

To keep watch overhead,
they rely on support from the air.

Especially, the F-16.

The F-16. Small in size,
big in versatility.

It's the undisputed king
of the multirole fighters.

Kris: The plane behind me is the
F-16 fighting falcon

which we commonly refer
to as the Viper.

The striking snake like features
of a Viper snake

are pretty appropriate
to this aircraft.

49 feet long, with a 30 foot wingspan,

the F-16 is the lightest
fighter in the air force inventory.

What it's missing in size, the F-16 more
then makes up for in personality.

It can turn, burn,
and leave you in the dust,

before you even know it's there.

Kris:More often then not, it's not
just a straight line that wer'e flying.

we'll use the vertical, doing loops
and split-s's to try and defend ourselves,

and hopefully we'll win the engagement
and get back home safely.

Narrator:Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Ten days into the war.

Two F-16's cruise 10,000 feet
above the northwest corner of Iraq.

Edward Lynch:Our mission that night was
searching for Scud missiles in Iraq.

Lieutenant Colonel Edward Lynch served
three tours as an F-16 pilot

in combat operations
against Iraq.

Lynch:You'r going on
a six to eight hour missions,

just looking around
on things on the ground.

It's like:"Are we ever gonna'
see any action"?

Narrator:Not long in their mission, Lynch
and his wingman get a call that threatens

to test the limits
of man...and machine.

And all of a sudden, the radios came alive,
directing us to some coordinates,

that were north of us.

They wanted us there fast, so I put
the coordinates in, pushed up the power

and we flaw as fast as we could.

Narrator:Ten minutes later, Lynch and his
wingman circle above a chaotic scene.

[Gunfire]

30,000 feet below, 500 Iraqi troops surround
52 british special operations soldiers.

Lynch:When we got overhead their position,
we heard them on the radio.

...We have gotten totaly surrounded!

Lynch:You've got this guy who's like:
"I'm dying, I need your help now".

[Gunfire]

British Troops:The enemy now is round us,
They are turned out all the lights...

We need your help, OK?

Lynch:Special ops guys are the guys with
tatoos and daggers on their legs,

and they don't call for help like that
unless it's really bad.

Narrator:The soldiers have one request:
Get the bombs in, now.

The Vipers ask if the gound troops
have an infrared strobe.

They need to get a read
on the troops location.

Lynch:OK, turn your strobe on now,
strobe on now.

Lynch:Wer'e wearing
night vision goggles,

which require illumination
from some light source,

and there was no illumination,
becasue there was no moon,

there was no stars, and there's nothing
on the ground, visible.

So, I wasn't gonna' be able to visualy
acquire them long enough

in order to drop a bomb.

Narrator:Lynch gives the troops
the bad news:

Bombs are not going to work.

British troops:2-3, I have no strobe,
I have no strobe

I can't help you If I can't see you.

Lynch:It's frustrating because if you don't
do something, they're gonna' die.

And, so you've got to come up
with your own tactics.

Narrator:Lynch and his wingman know things
on the ground, are quickly getting worse.

British troops:We are now on foot!
We are now on foot!

So they come up with an unusual plan:

One that relies on the power
of the F-16's engine.

Most fighters have two engines.

The F-16 only needs one.

Smith:This is the F110 GE
engine on the F-16 flying falcon.

It gives us the ability to take
the F-16 into a fight any time, anywhere.

Narrator:The engine's power comes from
its afterburner, located on the F-16's tail.

It produces almost
30,000 pounds of thrust,

enough force to let the Viper
fly at twice the speed of sound.

When the afterburner kicks in,
there's no mistaking.

Lynch:When you go into afterburner,
it makes like an exloding kinda' sound.

[ENGINE ROARS]

Narrator:If the F-16 flies fast enough,
it creats a supersonic boom.

A sound that Lynch plans to use,
as a weapon.

As the F-16 flies,
it produced sound waves.

As the plane travels faster and faster,

these waves can't get out
of each others way.

When the F-16 breaks the speed of sound,
the sound waves become one giant shockwave.

[ENGINE ROAR]

A sonic boom.

If the pilot pulls up sharply
from a steep descent,

he can make that boom sound
like it hits the ground.

In Iraq, that noise is exactly
what Lynch is counting on.

Lynch:I was hoping the Iraqis would think
that it's a weapon, coming down

and then that would allow,
a chance for the troops to escape.

Narrator:Lynch counts down to the drop.

Then barrels his F-16
fast below the cloud cover.

3,000 feet above the ground,
Lynch suddenly pulls up.

[Supersonic Boom]

The force of the Viper's engine
shakes the troops below.

Lynch:You're breathing hard,
your heart rate's up

I mean, it's like you're running
a hundred yard dash, in the airplane.

[AA radar locking on beep]

Narrator:Lynch doesn't have time to find out
if his dive bomb works.

Suddenly, an ear piercing noise
takes over his cabin.

It's the F-16's warning system.

An Iraqi missile has locked on to him,
and it's coming up, fast.

Lynch:Now, it's time for me to worry
about my own self, to survive.

Right now, I have to react.

[ENGINE ROAR]

Narrator:Deep in Iraqi air space,
Lieutenant colonel Edward Lynch,

tries to outrun a surface to air
missile in his F-16.

Lynch:I'm in full afterbuner,
so I'm making a hack of alot of racket

and now I'm accelerating extremly fast,

and pulling up my nose and hope
that the missile will overshoot.

[AA radar locking on beep]

Narrator:Finally, the F-16's missile lock
warning stops its whine.

Lynch's wild maneuvers,
have worked.

His next concern, the troops.

He calls down to find out
if his ruse worked.

Lynch:The sound of those
engines and afterburner,

had allowed the special ops
troops to escape.

It was an emotional, moment,

that I've been part of something,
to, to help,

someone in need.

Narrator:It's not the first time
troops have looked for the F-16.

In Iraq and Afghanistan,
the US air force relies on the Viper

for a whopping 33% of its
close air support missions.

It's a surprising mission for a plane
that was built for a specialized purpose:

Dogfighting.

[ENGINE ROAR]

1965, South Vietnam.

Cummunist Vietcong mount stinging
attacks against American forces.

News Reel Narrator:This is Pleiku,

the airbase that was ripped
by Vietnamese cummunist guerrillas.

Eight Americans died in the attack.

Narrator:A low level conflict between
the US and North Vietnam,

has been simmering for years.

President Lyndon B. Johnson,
is ready for things to escalate.

Lyndon Johnosn:
If American lives must end,

and American treasure
be spilled,

Then that is the price that change,
has demanded of conviction.

Narrator:The US Air force sends its jets,

expecting to make quick work
of the North Vietnamese air force.

They're in for a rude surprise.

Rebecca Grant:Starting the the 1950's,
the air force put its money

In to a string of supersonic
jet fighters

that were designed to
chase down soviet bombers.

Narrator:Author Dr. Rebecca Grant,
is one of the foremost civilian experts

on air force history, and aircraft.

Grant:When the air force got to Vietnam,
they find that many of those fighters

didn't have the agility and maneuverability
to match up against North Vietnam's MIG's.

Narrator:The air force's main enemy
is the soviet made MIG.

Small, Cheap, and blazingly fast.

In 1968 alone, they take out
22 US air force planes.

Grant:In World War II and in Korea,
the air force always had the upper hand.

But in Vietnam the air force found
that it was losing its edge in dogfighting.

And to change that,
they had to built new fighters.

Narrator:The air force races
to come up with a fighter,

that can hold its own against the MIG's.

In 1972 they debut their solution:
The F-15 Eagle.

Not everyone agrees it's
the best plane for the job.

Pierre Sprey:The F-15 started out as an
air to air oriented fighter.

The airplane it graw into,
was quite far from that.

Narrator:Pierre Sprey was a defense analyst
and lead engineer,

for the F-16 fighting falcon.

Sprey:Extra featers were added,
and the F-15 grew by five tons.

The air force had taken,
what was a brilliant airplane,

and they had turned it
into a bigger airplane.

It was no longer,
a superb, pure air to air fighter.

Narrator:Enter air force colonel John Boyd.

Leading a team he calls,
"The Figher Mafia",

They're determinted to build
the ultimate dogfighter.

Sprey:The Real goal of the "Fighter Mafia"
was to creat an airplane

that was hotter then the F-15,
half the size, half the cost,

and way better then
any fighter in the world.

Narrator:In 1971 deputy secretery
of defence David Packard

Finally pushes the program through.

The air force wants more F-15's,
But it will take what it get.

Sprey:They still weren't happy
about getting a small inexpensive airplane.

But ofcource if they were
as expensive as the F-15,

there was no way you could get
that budget out of the congress.

Narrator:1972. The Pentagon
puts out a request for proposals.

Five companies submit designes.

Air force brass whittle
the applicants down to two:

The YF-16, built by General Dynamics,

and the YF-17, built by Northrop.

The air force commissions
a prototype of each.

A flyoff will determine the winner.

The two companies quickly get to work,
but the air force isn't making any promises.

Sprey:The air force attitude was:
This is nice, we're gonna' have a lovely

technology demonstration and a flyoff,
and then we'll put all that on the shelf.

The F-15 was still the apple
of the air force's eye.

Narrator:1974, Edwards air force base.

After two years of development,
The YF-16 rolls on to the runway.

Rebecca Grant:The F-16 was a visual shocker.

This was very diffrent from the snub nosed
MIG's, and those heavy jets.

The F-16 was a new breed of fighter.

Narrator:The F-16 is the first fighter
designed with negetive stability.

It's made to be inherently, unstable.

Matthew Ayres:That sounds
a little bit counterintuitive,

but what that means is that the aircraft
has a very responsive flight control system.

The jet is one of the best turning
fighters that's ever been designed.

Narrator:The F-16 turns so fast,
that pilots call it "a rate machine".

Maintaining a very high rate
of degrees turn per second.

These high speed turns,
defy the force of gravity.

Grant:The F-16 was designed to withstand
9 G's, nine times the force of gravity.

That's still the highest number of G's
the air force designes its fighters for.

Everything about the F-16 was designed
for the fighter pilot

about to enter a hard charging,
Maneuvering, dogfight.

Narrator:But before the F-16 can dogfight,

it will have to prove
it can safely get off the gound.

Narrator:At edwards air force base, the
YF-16 prototype gets ready to show its stuff.

Sprey:The senior test pilot,
for General Dynamics

was slated to take this airplane out,
for highspeed taxi runs.

And maybe test the controls a little,
on how they handle.

Grant:The F-16 taxied down
the runway at highspeed.

Then the nose came up...

Sprey:The airplane started to veer quite
wildly, and actually hit the missile

on one wingtip, and hit the right tail,
quite hard on the ground.

Grant:It looked bad.

It looked like the pilot was in big trouble,

and that that was about to
be the end of the YF-16.

Narrator:At edwards air force base,

The YF-16 prototype for the new
air force fighter, careens out of control.

The pilot has just seconds to react.

Grant:The pilot had great hands.

He was able to bring the aircraft back
around for a smooth landing, without incident.

That test pilot saved the jet,
he may have saved the whole program.

Narrator:Engineers raced
to examine the aircraft.

It doesn't take long
to identify the problem.

Sprey:They had to reprogram
a lot of stuff in the engine,

so that you could actually handle this thing on
the ground without it getting away from you.

Narrator:Six months later, The YF-16
must face down a fierce competitor.

The YF-17.

The results are surprising.

John McLucas:There were
significant differences

in the performance of these prototypes.

The YF-16 had many advantages
in performance over the YF-17.

Sprey:It was unanimous.

The YF-16 had clearly beaten the YF-17,

and it was a major surprise,
of major consequence.

Narrator:Defence Secretary John McLucas
announces plans to procure

650 of the new aircraft.

The air force sends the YF-16
into production.

It comes out, the F-16 fighting Falcon.

A radically different plane.

Sprey:It had all these bomb racks,
It expanded the nose,

Lengthen the Fuselage a Foot, to put in
more electronics and stuff.

They more then doubled
the price of the airplane,

and they added two tons of weight.

We had homed the F-16 to be a pure, briliant
world dominant, air to air dogfighter.

It didn't need any exensive development.

Narrator:The modified plane
has to prove how lethal it really is.

It gets it's chance in
a most unexpected place.

1981, Iraq.

Ten miles south of Baghdad, French and Iraqi
engineers build a nuclear reactor.

They call it Osirak, after Osiris,
the Egyprian god of the dead.

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein
claims the reactor is for research.

The Israelis suspect a more sinister purpuse:
Making nuclear weapons.

Sprey:The Israelis were bound and determined
to make sure, that the Iraqis never made

any kind of progress in nuclear, technology.

They decided that they needed to bomb
the nuclear reactor in Iraq.

Narrator:The Israelis turn
to the newest fighter in the world:

The F-16 Fighting Falcon.

June 7th.
Six F-16s take off from Etzion Air Base,

carrying two, two thousand bombs each.

It's a six hundred miles
journey to the drop point.

Grant:The F-16 flew at an
extremly low altitude.

150 to 300 feat.

This kept the F-16s
underneath the radar coverage.

Narrator:12 and a half miles from Osirak,
The F-16s light up their afterburners.

They pop up to 3,000 feat,

and release their bombs.

[Radar lock beeping]

[Ordnance explosion]

Sprey:It came off brilliantly.

They got six out of the eight bombs
within the, within the dome of the reactor.

[Radar lock beeping]

Just extraordinary.

Narrator:The raid makes
headlines around the world.

Dan Rather:Good evening.

The aftershock is begining to mount,
in the wake of Israel bombing

a nuclear plant in Iraq.

Grant:It was such a bold audacious attack,
and there, right in the middle of it,

was the F-16,
actually doing the bomb dropping.

Narrator:In the United States,
pilots take note of the Viper's performance.

They train hard to earn
a seat in the coveted plane.

It takes three years
to become an F-16 pilot.

Only the best make the cut.

Lynch:You become one with the airplane.

It's not you strapping in an airplane,
you strap on an F-16.

And it will go wherever you wanna' go.

Narrator:Where American Viper pilots
wanna' go, is where the action is.

They'll have to wait ten years
to test their skills, in battle.

January 1991.

Aircraft from 13 countries,
gather in the Persian gulf.

The Unites States air force
sends over 400 fighters.

More then half of them are F-16s.

Viper pilots know they
face a formidable opponent.

Stephen Mueller:Baghdad was known as one of the
most heavely defended cities in the world.

Narrator:Lieutenant General Stephen Mueller
was an F-16 flight commander,

in Operation Desert Storm.

Mueller:We were essentially, gonna' go
into the middle of what was described

by everybody at the time, as the densest
threat enviroment on the planet.

Narrator:After Osirak, Iraqi generals
invest heavily in their air defenses.

They're determined not to let
the F-16 beat them again.

The Vipers will be meeting a well armed
enemy, with a score to settle.

Mueller:And so you say,
"Well OK, how good are you,

that you're gonna' be able to
get into that, and survive?"

Narrator:1991.
Al-Minhad air force base.

The third day of the war.

Forty F-16s get ready
to take of for Baghdad.

Their mission:To bomb an Iraqi munitions
factory 40 miles south of the city.

Mueller:Our goal was to bring this package
of 40 airplanes in as close and tight together,

and to be able to drop the bomb
and hit the target.

Narrator:Protecting the factory,
Iraqi surface to air missiles,

and their radar.

The F-16s takeoff.

To beat the radar, they take the low flying
strategy that the Israelis used 10 years ago,

and turn it on its head.

Mueller:The plan really was instead
of underflying them, to overfly them.

The radar would see you, they shoot at you.

But then you would essentially
by your maneuvers with the airplane,

you would defeat that missile.

Narrator:Tempting the surface to air
missiles is a bold strategy,

but will it work?

F-16 pilots aren't so sure.

Mueller:Becasue we have trained
over a decade flying below SAM coverage,

now all of a sudden we are gonna' try
and fly over the top of them

and everybody have been told,
"Can't fly over the top".

That's a big mental attestant, and I would say
a lot of people were nervous about that.

Narrator:Lieutenant General Stephen Mueller
leads 40 F-16s on a bombing raid to Baghdad.

To avoid Iraqi surface to air missiles,
they cruise at 38,000 feet.

The Iraqis look for the F-16s,

take aim, and fire.

The F-16s are so high,
they have plenty of time to react.

Mueller:We're evading several missiles,

and you can really tell
as you start to maneuver,

that it's just gonna' fall out of the sky.

Narrator:3 miles from the target, the Vipers
put their noses down and dive in, hard.

The F-16s strike with pinpoint precision.

Within moments, they're gone.

The mission is an unqualified success.

In Desert Storm the F-16s fly
over 13,000 sorties,

more then any other
coalition aircraft.

Mueller: I think people around the world
noticed that the precision of our airplanes,

was pretty amazing. And that we had a lot
of ability to, to destroy lots of targets,

very rapidly.

Narrator: The Viper proves it can overfly
the surface to air missiles, and win.

In the next war, the F-16 targets
the missiles themselves.

[MORTAR FIRE]

1999, Kosovo.

[MACHINE GUN FIRE]

Serb paramilitaries
Roam The Country,

targeting ethnic Abanians.

The region slips into civil war.

In March, NATO putts a plan into action:
Operation Allied Force.

Bill Clinton: United States forces,
acting with our NATO Allies,

have commenced airstrikes,
against serbian military targets.

Narrator: The airstrikes won't be easy.

The Serbs have the toughest air defenses
that NATO's ever experienced.

To face down the missiles:
The F-16.

NATO brings in more then 200 of them.

Sonny Blinkinsop:So as tensions
started to pick up,

all the airplanes from NATO started to,
started to converge on Italy.

Narrator: Colonel Sonny Blinkinsop was an
F-16 pilot with the 23rd fighter squadron.

Blinkinsop: Our mission was to perform
supression of enemy air defenses.

In other words, our job was to go out, find
the surface to air threats the serbians had,

and engage then with a HARM.

Narrator: The HARM, or AGM-88
High Speed anti Radiation Missile.

It adds more firepower to the Vipers
already mighty arsenal.

Ayres: The F-16 is a very versatile fighter.

It can carry every weapon that the
United States air force employs right now,

that is meant for fighter aircraft.

Narrator: To getting close, the Viper has a
20 millimeter Gatling gun.

For enemies in the air, an AIM-9
Sidewinder missile, or an AIM-120 AMRAAM.

For gound targets,
there's more options.

Laser guided bombs, or against enemy radar:
The HARM.

Ayres: What I think makes it very unique
is the ability to change missions quickly,

So you can have this configured for an,
an air to ground attack,

then 3 hours later have it configured
for an air to air mission.

Narrator: The F-16 has a weapon
for every kind of enemy,

but it has to find the enemy first.

May 2nd, 1999.

Aviano air force base, Italy.
Four US F-16s fire up on the runway.

Blinkinsop:On this particular night we were
escorting in, ahm, a package,

that had two groups:
Tornados and F-18s.

Narrator: The strikers have a target: OBRVA-
Morava airfield on the western side of Serbia.

Blinkinsop:The strikers that night were going
in to take out parts of the airfield,

parts of the hangers, some barracks and some
other military targets.

So our job that night was to protect the
strikers so they could get those targets.

Narrator: The four F-16s take off.

Three hours later,
they enter Serbian airspace.

It's time to start hunting
for enemy missiles.

[AA Radar Lock beeping]

Suddenly Blenkinsope's F-16
sounds a warning.

Three surface to air missiles
are rocketing straight for their formation.

Blenkinsop: Even though it's night time
you can see them coming towards you

because they have a big burn on the back
of them, it's like a cigarette, coming at you.

Narrator: The F-16s scramble to fly
under the missiles,

But forcing the Vipers to fly low,
as part of the Serbians game.

Blinkinsop: They would fire their
SA-3's at us, to get us to react.

As you lose altitude,
you descend into,

now the triple A,
the high cailbre triple A sites.

Narrator: Blinkinsop has to do
something, fast.

He turns his Viper towards the missile site,
and launches his HARM.

Blinkinsop: The F-16 is a great airplane
when you're being shot at,

a, very menoverable,
with a, a HARM on board.

As it comes off the aircraft,
it's like a bottle rocket

It's very fast and makes a big plume,
near your aircraft.

Narrator: 45 seconds later,
the HARM reaches its target.

It's dead on.

Blinkinsop: We don't see any more
activity out of that area.

And about a minute and a half later,
the strikers were in the targert area,

and we could see that their bombs
were hitting the ground

and blowing up, so mission accomplished.

Rebecca Grant: When Operation Allied Force,
F-16's became the primary tools

for finding Serbian air defence missiles,
and launching missiles to take them out.

The F-16 was just such a adaptable
multirole platform,

that it was a natural for this mission.

Narrator: The F-16 is so adaptable,
that it takes on yet another key role.

Taking control of the airspace.

[SIRENS]

September 11th, 2001.

Al-Qaeda operatives strike
two American cities.

It's the deadliest attack ever
on American soil.

Tom Brokaw: What was once a symbol
of Americas might is tonight

a scene of utter devestasion.

Narrator: Six months later, US forces
scoure Afghanistan.

Their mission: Find 9/11 mastermind,
Osama Bin Laden.

George W. Bush: All I want and America wants
him brought to justice.

That's what we want.

Narrator: Navy sEALS and Army Rangers,
Patrol the mountains.

High over head, the air force's long
established multirole fighter:The F-16.

Burt Bartley: The F-16s from our squadron
were flying two to four aircraft, per day.

Narrator: Lieutenant Colonel Burt Bartley,

was an F-16 pilot during
Operation Enduring Freedom.

Bartley: We didn't know what we're gonna'
be tasked to do.

We were trying to adapt to the situations at
hand, based on our experience and training.

Narrator: March 2002.
High above Afghanistan,

Lieutenant Colonel Bartley and his
wingman fly their F-16s on a routin patrol.

Suddenly they get a call,
from two F-15 Strike Eagles.

Bartley: I heard the F-15s,
call for support for a downed helicopter.

I could tell by the sense of urgency, that
they needed help, and they needed it now.

Narrator: Bartly radios that he is on
his way, and ready to take charge.

Bartley: When we arrived on station, I took
on seat command from the F-15s.

It's important to establish
who has control of the situation.

Narrator: Bartly quicky radios down
to the ground troops.

In order to come up with a strategy,
he has to know where they are.

Bartly: I was able to get in direct
communication with the guy with the radio on the ground,

to determin his position
reletive to the enemy.

Narrator: Bartly asks the F-15s
about their fire power.

Each one has two 500 pound bombs.

He gives the F-15s the soldiers coordinates
and tells them to give it their best shot.

The F-15s dive.

They release their bombs.

All four of them, miss.

There's more bad news.
The F-15s are almost out of fuel.

Bartly sends them home.

Bartly: They had overstayed their timeline,
They were out of ordnance,

we needed the fuel for ourselves,
so they returned to Kuwait.

Narrator:The Strike Eagles take off, leaving
Bartly and his wingman alone in the air.

If anything is going to happen now,
it's up to the F-16s.

Narrator:Lieutenant Colonel Burt Bartly
circles his F-16 in Afghanistan,

20,000 feet below, two teams of Army Rangers
are under fire from Al-Qaeda.

On the ground, things look bad.
But Bartly has classified information

that the soldiers don't.

He has one last weapon he can call on:
A Predator Drone.

Normally, it operates on it's own

This time, Bartly makes it
part of the mission.

Bartly:I knew he had a very small Hellfire
missile, with precision engagement capability.

We gave him clearance to engage
the target, he shot the Hellfire

right into that landing zone.

Narrator:The Hellfire missile does the job.
It's a perfectly orchestrated kill.

The F-16s continue to keep watch.

As soon as the coast is clear, Chinooks
come in to take the soldiers out.

They bring all 41 of the soldiers home.

Forward air Control: It's the ultimate
mission for the ultimate multirole fighter.

Bartly: Is it physically demanding? Sure.
Is it emotionally taxing? Can be.

But there is no greater satisfaction then
you actually use the resources you had

at the time, to accomplish something.
That's a good feeling.

Narrator: The F-16 seems to be
at the top of its game.

But now, it must get ready for
the biggest showdown, of its life.

January 14th, 2015.

Edwards Air Force base, California.

The F-16 meets its replacement:
The F-35.

The Purpose:
To see who has the best stuff.

Pierre Sprey:The results were crushing.

In not a single dogfight was the F-35
able to either defend itself

against an attack from the F-16 or to
convert its attack into a kill.

Narrator:It's a great performance
for a middle aged fighter.

But the Air Force isn't swayed.

Rebecca Grant:Every time there is a new jet,
those who fly the current jets

like to talk about how good they are.

The F-35 was designed from the beginning
as a stealth fighter.

That gives it incredible advantages.

Narrator:Even the F-16's greatest fans admit
that the Viper maybe getting too old for combat.

Rebecca Grant:The F-16's are only rated
8,000 hours. Once they approach 8,000 hours,

they have to be retired.

You're looking at block retirements
of F-16's in the very near future.

Narrator: In the meantime, the F-16
production line keeps humming.

Lockheed Martin has orders from 26 nations.

Pierre Sprey:The F-16 was universally viewed
as pretty much the best fighter in the world

among other countries, and ofcourse that's
why 4500 of them were built.

Narrator:The Viper was designed
for one thing:Dogfighting.

But it's become so much more.

Rebecca Grant:The F-16 has gone far beyond
the expectations of the Fighter Mafia.

They are ready for Air to Air, conventional
Air to Ground, nuclear alert,

Homeland defence missions, strafing,
you name it-The F-16 can do it.

Narrator:The F-16:A seamless combination
of man and machine.

For pilots, it's the aircraft
they dream of flying.

Blinkinsop:I can't imagine any other airplane
to fly, it's the greatest airplane, built.

Narrator:Versatile, sneaky
and lighting fast.

The F-16, is a multirole rock star.

When you need a plane that can do anything,
just call on...The F-16.