Flightglobal
Date Aug 13, 2015
By: James Drew
Lockheed Martin has signed a contract to equip Taiwan’s F-16s with its Sniper Advanced 
Targeting Pod and the first two units are just about ready to deliver from the production site in Orlando, Florida.
A company spokeswoman tells Flightglobal that two units will be delivered in the fourth quarter for integration by the US Air Force, which is running Taiwan’s F-16 upgrade programme through the American foreign military sales process.
Although it’s a small order initially, Lockheed’s missiles and fire control business can likely expect further orders down the road as the first two pods are fielded. The disclosure of deliveries to Taiwan comes just days after the company revealed Japan’s decision to carry Sniper Pod on its Mitsubishi Heavy Industries F-2.
Lockheed said in a 13 August statement that Taiwan has also contracted it to provide integration support for the LANTIRN targeting and navigation system, which is being employed on Taipei’s recently modernised F-16s. Lockheed is currently upgrading 144 Taiwanese A-model F-16s, which includes the installation of Northrop’s Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR). [FULL STORY]
