USAF F-16 upgrade not funded; Taiwan's F-16 upgrade hit

USAF F-16CM from the Kunsan, South Korea-based 8th Fighter Wing

Aaron Mehta over at Defense News has reported that the US Air Force's F-16 Combat Avionics Programmed Extension Suite (CAPES) upgrade program has not been included in the FY 2015 budget request, with some of the money instead being reinvested toward a general F-16 service-life extension program (SLEP) in an effort to preserve funds and keep the force structure intact.

This decision will have ramifications in Asia, where Taiwan has selected to align its own F-16 upgrade with the CAPES program, centred around Northrop-Grumman's Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR). Without the economies of scale of the USAF upgrading and integrating the new equipment on board their F-16s, Taiwan's own upgrade program will see costs rising if its plans are to go ahead.

More at Defense News.