Damaged Indonesian Air Force F-16B
Appeared on Alert 5 Weblog Facebook page, the interesting photo in this post shows the Indonesian Air Force (Tentara Nasional Indonesia Angkatan Udara, TNI-AU) F-16B that skidded off runway and overturned at Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase during landing after it conducted an exercise on Mar. 14, 2017.
Following the accident, TNI-AU grounded its F-16A/B fleet.
“The operation of F-16s will be temporarily suspended after the main cause (of the accident) is known,” Commander of the Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase Commodore Henri Alfiandi told on Mar. 15 to Antaranews.com.
He added that the exact cause of the accident is under investigation by a team of the Aircraft Accident Investigating Committee (PPKPU) of the Indonesian Air Force.
Noteworthy Roesmin Nurjadin Airbase is home to Squadron 16 which is TNI-AU only unit to fly the F-16A.
The airfield has a squadron of Hawk 100/200s too.
TNI-AU F-16s
In 1986, the Indonesian Air Force settled on the F-16 Fighting Falcon.
According to F-16.net, TNI-AU ordered a total of 12 F-16A/B block 15OCU aircraft. An additional order for 9 aircraft (from the embargoed Pakistani order) and plans for the acquisition of up to 60 F-16s were cancelled and replaced with 4 Flankers. Indonesia’s F-16s are employed in both air defense and ground attack roles, although lack of advanced weapons and navigation/targeting equipment limits them to daylight operations.
TNI-AU signed a contract in January 2012 for the procurement of 24 ex-USAF F-16C/D Block 25 airframes. These were modified to Block 32 standards before being delivered to Indonesia. These jets use the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-220 turbofan engines.
With the latest order of 24 second-hand USAF airframes, the capabilities of the TNI-AU are expanding rapidly with the more advanced airframes being delivered in 2014 and 2015.
Photo credit: unknown source via Alert 5 Facebook page
