Belgian F-16's delivered to RJAF,  10 September 2008

Today the Belgian Air Force organized a small photo call to give us the opportunity to take some shots of the first delivery flight of four former Belgian F-16's to the Royal Jordanian Air Force. These are the first of a total of sixteen Belgian and eight Dutch F-16's to be delivered to the Royal Jordanian Air Force. The deal was signed in April 2006 which included the conversion of Jordanian pilots and technicians. Since then a total of 10 pilots have completed their conversion at the OCU squadron at Kleine Brogel AB, and some 80 technicians  did some courses at the Royal Technical School at Saffraanberg, followed by OJT training with the 2W at Florennes AB and 10W at Kleine Brogel AB.

The photo call began around 7 o'clock in the morning so it was still pretty dark. First we had the opportunity to take some shots five F-16's of the RJAF. One of these jets was a spare and stayed on the ramp. Around 8 o'clock four jets began their start-up procedure, and half an hour later they taxied out to runway 23. When all four F-16's were airborne the photo call ended.

History of F-16's in RJAF service

On July 29th, 1996 an agreement (Peace Falcon I) was signed between the USA and Jordan authorizing the lease of sixteen Falcons to Jordan.  The roll-out of the first Jordanian F-16 was on October 28th, 1997 on Hill AFB, Utah. Later that year in December, the first batch of six aircraft made their delivery flight to Jordan.

Still looking for a replacement for it's old F-5 fighters, Jordan acquires another batch of seventeen F-16's (Peace Falcon II) for this replacement. On January 29th, 2003 the first six F-16's of this second order were delivered to the Royal Jordanian Air Force.

As said before, today the first four of a total of 24 MLU F-16's were delivered to the Royal Jordanian Air Force. These 'new' MLU jets will operate from at Al Azraq / As Shaheed Muwaffaq Salti AB, which is approx. 90 miles east of the capital Amman. Three squadrons are based here, one Mirage F1 squadron and two F-16 squadrons. The former Belgian and Dutch F-16's will probably join the 2nd Sqn. With these 24 jets the total number F-16's within the Royal Jordanian Air Force will be approx. 54, as at least three jets have been written off so far.