Description

Graceful, fast, powerful and agile. These are words that seamlessly match one of the most iconic fighter aircraft of the past fifty years: the F-16 Fighting Falcon. Developed and built as a lightweight fighter, the fighter aircraft resembled a fast and barely graspable featherweight boxer. But also with enormous striking power. The F-16 could therefore easily hold its own in the heaviest combat class.

The Royal Netherlands Air Force took delivery of the first of a total of 213 F-16s in June 1979. The fighter aircraft experienced the tail end of the Cold War and subsequently flew thousands of missions over the Balkans, Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. Featherlight heavyweight is about the history of the F-16 in service with the Royal Netherlands Air Force . The purchase, the introduction, the training, the maintenance and of course the operational deployment; it is all discussed.

The F-16 has now – just like the old boxer – left the ring. The gloves have been taken off after 45 years. Feather-light heavyweight. The F-16 in service with the Royal Netherlands Air Force 1979-2024 is a salute to one of the most important weapon systems of the Dutch armed forces after the Second World War.