Officials from the Korean Air Technical Center in Busan take commemorative photos after the successful delivery of the first aircraft for the US Air Force F-16 Life Extension Project November 18.

Korean Air announced on the 21st that it has successfully shipped the first aircraft for the US Air Force F-16 Fighter Life Extension Project at the Busan Technological Center. Korean Air has received an order from the US Department of Defense to extend the life of F-16 fighter jets deployed to USFK and USFK Japan by approximately 10 years until September 2030.

The life extension project is the highest level of aircraft maintenance. It consists in strengthening and replacing the main structures of the fuselage and wings. Thanks to this, fighter flight time has been increased from 8,000 hours to 12,000 hours.

Since its development in 1972, the F-16 fighter has been positioned as the main US Air Force aircraft in the Asia-Pacific region. The Republic of Korea Air Force also operates mainly F-16s along with F-15Ks.

Korean Air continues various activities based on its depot maintenance capabilities and specialized logistics support capabilities it has accumulated over the years. Since the US Depot maintenance project in 1978, F-4, F-15, F-16, C-130, A-10 fighter and transport aircraft, RC-12, UH-60, CH-47, CH reconnaissance aircraft -53 successfully implemented projects for the maintenance and reconstruction of aircraft and helicopter bases.

Korean Air said, “In the case of the F-16, we have carried out maintenance and performance improvement projects on 890 units from 1984 to the present.” This gave us the opportunity to improve even more,” he said.

Korean Air Busan Tech Center is the largest military aircraft maintenance base in the Asia-Pacific region, which performs maintenance on various Korean and US military aircraft. He has the technology and know-how gained from receiving orders for the maintenance and performance improvement of 6,000 military aircraft.

Reporter Lee Chang-hoon hun88@edaily.co.kr