Aviationist: These Images Show A Texas ANG’s F-16C Wearing A Slightly Modified “Have Glass V” Paint Scheme

[JosefK 912]

From the article:

 

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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.

 

 

MORE at the link.  But posting hoping to see some F-16 repaints out of this please...

[JosefK 912]

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Many Squadrons, including the 64th AGRS (Aggressor Squadron) at Nellis Air Force Base, the South Dakota ANG 175th Fighter Squadron and 85th TES at Eglin AFB, Florida, fly or have flown Vipers painted with the new darker color scheme. However, it’s worth noticing a slight variant in the latest aircraft from the Texas ANG: while all the other Have Glass V we have seen thus far have a radome painted in “normal” F-16 paint and color, the 149th FW’s Viper seems to have a darker radome. Moreover, unlike all the others, the two-letter tail code, serial number and squadron markings are black in color, instead of light grey.

 

 

[MigBuster 2,906]

He has got that wrong....the radome is not painted on operational F-16s but coated in a material that works with Radar...........and they are all different shades depending on their age usually. In fact they have "Do Not Paint" written on it when you see it up close.

[+Menrva 4,372]

2 hours ago, MigBuster said:

the radome is not painted on operational F-16s but coated in a material that works with Radar...........and they are all different shades depending on their age usually.

Exactly. The same can be said about the F-22A Raptor's nose. While working on this aircraft add-on, I was puzzled to see that the nose of the Raptor looked different on various photos. In the end, I concluded that old Raptors have a darker nose, while newer ones still show a lighter shade.

[JosefK 912]

Yup, if I recall correctly the 57th Aggressor Wing had to hunt around to get black radome for "Wraith" the black F-16 aggressor jet.  My photo from Aviation Nation 2019, obviously before the black radome got mounted:

Edited December 22, 2019 by JosefK