The Bahrain Air Force's test aircraft in the United States has conducted "fully loaded" weapons flights to test its actual capabilities. This is also the first time that the F-16 Block70 fighter has been exposed in an actual armed mission. From the test photos, we can also imagine the future combat scenes of our country's F-16 when it is fully equipped with missiles. (Picture taken from U.S. Air Force)
[Reporter Luo Tianbin/Taipei Report] The first batch of two new F-16 BLK70 fighter jets successfully landed at Taitung Zhihang Base today. The powerful ammunition loading capacity of this new aircraft immediately attracted great attention from military fans and defense experts. What is commonly known as "Beast Mode" in military terminology refers to a fighter aircraft that completely abandons its stealth shell and mounts all weapon racks on its body in order to pursue maximum firepower projection on a single aircraft. A retired Air Force general analyzed that Taiwan's newly purchased and upgraded F-16 BLOCK 70 fleet can directly transform into a high-altitude "missile truck" by turning on beast mode during the Taiwan Strait defense war, and use extremely terrifying saturation firepower to confront the Communist forces head-on.
The new generation F-16 BLK70 fighter jet can perfectly activate beast mode. The key secret lies in the "two saddles" on the back of the aircraft, which are the "Conformable Fuel Tanks (CFT)". In the past, if old fighter jets wanted to fly far, they would have to hang a heavy main and auxiliary fuel tank under each wing of the left and right wings. This would directly occupy two golden pylons that could be used to hang heavy missiles. Now the new aircraft directly attaches fuel to the back of the aircraft. Not only does it have extremely low flight resistance, it can also carry about 3,050 pounds of more fuel. This design directly frees up the storage space under the wings, allowing all golden pylons to be used to mount weapons without reservation.
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The first batch of two single-seat F-16V BLK 70 fighter jets successfully arrived at Taitung Zhihang Base today. (Photo by reporter Liu Renwei)
Retired generals said that in the ultimate "air superiority and air defense" beast mode configuration, an F-16 BLOCK 70 can carry up to 6 to 8 AIM-120C-8 medium-range air-to-air missiles with the assistance of dual missile pylons. Coupled with 2 AIM-9X short-range Sidewinder missiles on both sides of the wingtips, the entire missile truck can carry up to 10 missiles alone. A top-notch anti-aircraft missile. In actual combat, as long as a small formation of 4 aircraft takes off in an emergency, up to 40 advanced missiles that are fired and ignored can be dumped over the strait in a short period of time. This crazy saturation anti-air hunting capability is specially used to counter the saturation attacks of a large number of communist fighters across the center line.
If switched to source strike and anti-ship missions, the F-16 BLOCK 70 in beast mode is also a ferocious beast. Its fuselage has a maximum weight of up to 13,000 pounds. It can carry two AGM-84 Harpoon anti-ship missiles under the wings at the same time to hunt large Communist warships, and two AGM-88 anti-radiation missiles to destroy the air defense radar along the opposite coast. What's even more amazing is that at this time, the fighter fuselage can still retain 2 medium-range bombs and 2 short-range bombs for self-defense in encounters. This kind of large-capacity strike power that can simultaneously "hunt ships, blind enemies, and engage in air combat" is unmatched by most fighters currently in service.
Retired generals emphasized that although the F-35 fifth-generation aircraft owned by neighboring countries such as Japan and South Korea usually have missiles hidden in small internal bomb bays in order to maintain stealth performance, they can only carry 4 to 6 missiles at most, and they have to return home after being fired. Taiwan, which is engaged in defensive operations, is blocked by radar from the central mountain range of the island and covered by the world's highest density of ground-based anti-aircraft missiles. The F-16 BLOCK 70 does not need to go to great lengths to pursue ultimate stealth. It is in its most complete heavy infantry state when it takes off. It uses beast mode to bring the most missiles, shoots out all the missiles like a machine gun, and uses its absolute numerical advantage to build an insurmountable aerial Great Wall on the front line of the strait.
