The aircraft, one of 14 ordered by the Slovak Republic, was showcased in flight over the desert terrain near Phoenix, Arizona. It took off from Morris Air National Guard Base in Tucson, Arizona, where Slovak (and Polish) pilots are trained. The base is home to the 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard. These are the first such photos in the history of Slovakia’s Air Force (Vzdušné sily Ozbrojených síl Slovenskej Republiky), taken on October 9th from a civilian Short SC.7 Skyvan transport aircraft by our photographer, Michał Adamowski.
Photos: Michał Adamowski, MILMAG
The centerpiece of today’s gallery arrived at the U.S. National Guard training center in Arizona on June 13th of this year. A total of 22 pilots and 160 ground technical support members will undergo training in the U.S. The training of Slovak flying and ground personnel is conducted by the 162nd Operations Group of the 162nd Wing.
On January 10th of this year, Lockheed Martin formally handed over the first two units to the Slovak Air Force. In total, nine Slovak F-16s will be stationed at Morris Air Base for training purposes, while the remaining five are being transferred directly to Slovakia—the first two arrived in the user’s country on July 22nd of this year, and the arrival of the third is planned by the end of the year. They have been temporarily stationed at Kuchyňa-Malacky Air Base as part of the 46th Wing until the ground infrastructure at Sliač Air Base is upgraded.
Slovakia decided to purchase American aircraft on July 11, 2018, rejecting the Swedish counteroffer from Saab Defence and Security for the JAS 39 Gripen (the procurement program had been ongoing since 2015). The F-16C/D Block 70 was chosen as the replacement for 11 operational MiG-29AS/UBS fighters, which were then grouped in the 1st Fighter Squadron (1. Bojová letka) of the Otto Smik Tactical Wing (Taktické krídlo Otta Smika) of the Air Force, stationed at Sliač Air Base (on September 28, 2019, the twelfth MiG-29 crashed).
The package for Slovakia was valued at a maximum of 2.91 billion USD and included, in addition to the aircraft themselves, AN/APG-83 SABR radar stations with active electronically scanned array (AESA), AIM-120C-7 AMRAAM and AIM-9X Sidewinder air-to-air missiles, GBU-12, GBU-38, and GBU-49 bombs, as well as Mk 82 bombs. The intergovernmental agreement, worth over 1.6 billion EUR, was signed in December 2018 (the final order value was reduced through negotiations).
On July 31, 2019, the U.S. Department of Defense signed a contract with Lockheed Martin worth 799,955,939 USD for the production and delivery of the aircraft, with a deadline set for January 31, 2024. Interestingly, there were initial plans to purchase used U.S. F-16A/B aircraft, stored by the U.S. Air Force (USAF), but the cost of refurbishment and modernization, estimated at 220 million EUR, proved to be too high.
On October 27, 2021, the then Minister of Defense of Slovakia, Jaroslav Naď, participated in a symbolic ceremony marking the start of production of the first F-16, which was assigned the factory number EY-01. He then met with a group of Slovak pilots undergoing initial training on the F-16 at the international training center at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona.
On April 14, 2023, Minister Naď announced that the government had delivered all 13 of the promised MiG-29AS/UBS fighters to Ukraine, which is currently at war. Until Slovakia’s F-16s reach operational readiness, the country’s airspace is being protected by Poland and the Czech Republic. Meanwhile, on June 21 of this year, the current leadership of the Ministry announced at a press conference that they would file a criminal complaint regarding the delivery of the mentioned MiG-29 aircraft and two 2K12 Kub 2M surface-to-air missile launchers to Ukraine by the government of Eduard Heger.
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