page_title: General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon operators
section_title: Chile
hierarchical_section_title: General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon operators / Latin America / Chile
caption_attribution_description: English: Fighter airplane
context_page_description: The United States Air Force, four of its NATO partners, and Pakistan, a major non-NATO ally, are the primary operators of General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon. With the evolution of sales under Foreign Military Sales contracts, many other air forces have also acquired F-16s. Most nations that have bought F-16s continue to use them as of 2010.
  The F-16 is still in demand today, and many air forces are looking to replace aging inventories with F-16s. Because the USAF has steadily upgraded its F-16 inventory, it will sometimes sell older aircraft it considers obsolete as surplus Excess Defense Articles or as "knockdown" aircraft to supplement spares inventories.
context_section_description: The Chilean Air Force selected the F-16 as the winner of a long-running competition to provide the nation's next generation of fighter aircraft in 2000.  The F-16 competed successfully against the JAS 39 Gripen, the Dassault Mirage 2000, and the F-18 Hornet. Chile has already received all of its ten F-16C/D Block 50+ aircraft. The deal for six C and four D model aircraft was valued at $600 million in 2002 and was conducted under the program name PEACE PUMA. Eighteen surplus F-16A/B MLU aircraft (11 F-16AM and 7 F-16BM) were bought from the Netherlands in 2005, and were delivered by mid-2006. In late 2008, the Chilean Ministry of Defense expressed its interest in buying 18 more aircraft from the Netherlands, which was later confirmed in April 2009.
  The Chilean F-16 Block 50s can be armed with US missile such as the AIM-120 and AIM-9 Sidewinder, and Israeli made missiles Derby, Python IV and Python V.
  The Air Force of Chile F-16s  are part of the following units:
  1st Air Brigade (I Brigada Aérea) in Los Condores Air Base.
  3rd Aviation Group (Grupo de Aviación Nº 3).
  5th Air Brigade (V Brigada Aérea) in Cerro Moreno Air Base.
  7th Aviation Group (Grupo de Aviación Nº 7).
  8th Aviation Group (Grupo de Aviación Nº 8).
caption: A Chilean F-16 Block 50/52+
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