The F-16 Fighting Falcon is the world’s most common fixed-wing aircraft in military service.

The United States Air Force is chockful of warplanes that bear both an official moniker and an unofficial nickname that’s more popular for controversial usage amongst its crews (and in some cases the general public as well). For example, the B-1B strategic bomber, officially the Lancer, is affectionately called the “Bone” by its crewmembers. Another strategic bomber, the B-52, is officially called the Stratofortress but is unofficially dubbed the “BUFF” (“Big Ugly Fat Fellow” in polite company, but actually “Big Ugly Fat F—er”). And of course, there’s the tank-killing A-10 ground attack plane, which bears the official name of Thunderbolt II but everybody and their mother knows as the “Warthog.”

Meanwhile, there’s also General Dynamics cum Lockheed Martin F-16 fighter jet. Officially dubbed the Fighting Falcon—thus sharing its moniker with the sports nickname of the U.S. Air Force Academy—for the longest time its crew dogs have lovingly labeled their plane the “Viper” (bird of prey or venomous snake, pick your poison, eh). Sure enough, in recognition of that long-standing nicknaming tradition, the latest & greatest variant of the F-16, the F-16V, indeed received the official appellation of Viper.

And now, for good measure, the F-16 is receiving a protective upgrade, appropriately known as the Viper Shield.

The F-16: Bottom Line Up Front

The basics of the story come to us courtesy of reporter Vince Cockayne in a February 5, 2025, article for The Washington Times titled “Air Force conducts first F-16 flight using anti-electronic warfare Viper Shield.”

The product is manufactured by L3Harris and has the full name of AN/ALQ-254(V)1 Viper Shield. It is intended to improve pilot and plane safety and survivability by ensconcing the warbird in a “virtual electronic shield” against enemy electronic warfare (EW) measures, i.e., a counter-radar system that provides “immediate detection and advanced jamming responses to disrupt the adversary’s kill chain.” It has the added benefit of being able to link with the fighter’s mission modular computer or any next-generation computer adapted to the F-16.

The system was recently tested in flight out of Edwards AFB, California, an installation with a long-established history of supporting test flights; the mission included subtests of risk-reduction and of the Northrup Grumman AN/APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR) Active Electronically Scanned Array fire control radar (FCR).

Cockayne quotes a statement from L3Harris:

“‘Viper Shield is designed with fewer critical components than previous generation EW systems. This not only results in a smaller form factor and reduced weight, but also a higher mean time between failure and lower lifecycle costs. The modular design supports swapping line replaceable units (LRUs) in the field. The design is also forward-looking by provisioning for future growth and enhancements.’”

The Way Forward for the F-16

Ed Zoiss, president of L3Harris Space and Airborne Systems, has stated a goal of having the Viper Shield system delivered by late 2025.

Within America’s aerial arsenal, the F-16 is slowly but surely becoming obsolescent. The emphasis is now being placed more on fifth-generation stealth fighters such as Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Lightning II and the F-22 Raptor (though the latter is no longer manufactured thanks to then-Secretary of Defense Bob Gates’s 2009 decision to kill that program). Other platforms receiving their share of attention and resources are the sixth-generation fighters like the Next Generation Air Dominance—which received a new lease on life thanks to the new Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS)—and/or the Light Fighter Concept.

However, for other nations’ air forces, such as Iraq’s, that have no need for stealth capability, the F-16 remains a viable fighting platform. Indeed, at least twenty-five countries around the world still use the warbird; it’s the world’s most common fixed-wing aircraft in military service, thus rivaling another Cold War-era fighter plane, the Soviet-designed MiG-21 “Fishbed,” for sheer ubiquity. In other words, the Fighting Falcon/Viper isn’t going away anytime soon, and improvements like the Viper Shield ought to indeed (if you will forgive a bad pun here) shield the plane from being forced into a premature retirement.

About the Author: Christian D. Orr

Christian D. Orr was previously a Senior Defense Editor for National Security Journal (NSJ) and 19FortyFive. He is a former Air Force Security Forces officer, Federal law enforcement officer, and private military contractor (with assignments worked in Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Kosovo, Japan, Germany, and the Pentagon). Chris holds a B.A. in International Relations from the University of Southern California (USC) and an M.A. in Intelligence Studies (concentration in Terrorism Studies) from American Military University (AMU). He has also been published in The Daily Torch, The Journal of Intelligence and Cyber Security, and Simple Flying. Last but not least, he is a Companion of the Order of the Naval Order of the United States (NOUS). If you’d like to pick his brain further, you can ofttimes find him at the Old Virginia Tobacco Company (OVTC) lounge in Manassas, Virginia, partaking of fine stogies and good quality human camaraderie.

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