Northrop upgrading "the critical eyes" of F-16

Colin Demarest

Silhouette of an F-16 fighter jet in flight against a warm golden sunset sky with thick clouds. — An F-16 maneuvers during an airshow in Goshen, Indiana, on July 10. Photo: Steven Cardo/DVIDS

Northrop Grumman foresees "a lot of runway ahead" for its Scalable Agile Beam Radar, which is being installed in F-16s around the world.

Why it matters: Upgrades like SABR are, piece by piece, future-proofing the venerated Lockheed Martin-made fighter.

Driving the news: Northrop in May said it delivered its 1,000th SABR, more formally known as the AN/APG-83. It's derived from systems aboard the F-22 and F-35.

Meantime, the U.S. Air Force is pushing ahead with Northrop's Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite, which could be outfitted on F-16s as soon as 2028.

What they're saying: "On a fighter aircraft, the radar is the critical eyes of the fighter pilot," Mike Minahan, a vice president in Northrop's mission-systems sector, told Axios.

"Pilots today, in an F-16 that's upgraded with SABR, [are able] to multitask and handle a much greater workload and a much higher number of threats," he said.

Zoom out: More than two dozen countries have adopted the F-16. Newer versions are expected to fly well into the 2030s and 2040s.

The warplane was used in both the Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury operations.

The bottom line: The SABR "production line is cranking away as we speak," Minahan said. "It's true there's a finite number of F-16s. I would also say the denominator is quite large."

Go deeper: Lockheed tapped for Taiwan F-16 sensors

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Northrop upgrading "the critical eyes" of F-16

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