F-16 Fighting Falcon (English literally - fighting falcon, - so named in honor of the mascot of the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs) - an American multifunctional light fighter of the fourth generation. Developed in 1974 by General Dynamics. It was commissioned in 1978. In 1993, General Dynamics sold its aircraft construction business to Lockheed Corporation (now Lockheed Martin). The F-16, due to its versatility and relatively low cost, is the most massive fighter of the fourth generation (as of June 2018, more than 4,604 aircraft have been built) and enjoys success on the international arms market (it is in service with 25 countries, as of 2019 it was the most developed in the world ] ). The last of the 2,231 F-16s for the US Air Force were delivered to the customer in 2005. The modernized F-16 continues to be produced for export in 2018; in particular, in June 2018, 16 aircraft were ordered by Bahrain, 14 by Slovakia and 8 by Bulgaria in the F-16V version.
