Bahraini F-16 Block 70 Scores Type’s First Air-To-Air Kill

A Royal Bahraini Air Force (RBAF) F-16 Block 70 fighter scored the type’s first air-to-air kill on April 1 against a pair of Iranian drones, a source familiar with the incident tells Aviation Week.

The drones had evaded intercept attempts by ground-based air defense in the pre-dawn hours.

The RBAF, which received the first F-16 Block 70 production aircraft in March 2024 in Bahrain, then launched the single-engine fighter to intercept the drones, the source says.

In 2019, the U.S. government authorized Bahrain to import 32 RTX AIM-9X Sidewinders and 32 AIM-120C-7 Amraam missiles as part of the order for 16 F-16 Block 70s.

The Bahraini fighter, which comes equipped with a Northrop Grumman APG-83 radar and Lockheed AAQ-33 Sniper targeting pod, fired AIM-9X and AIM-120C-7 missiles at the pair of drones and shot both down, the source says.

Bahrain became Lockheed’s launch customer for the F-16 Block 70 in 2019, the first of six countries that have ordered 148 fighters combined. Lockheed has delivered the first 16 F-16 Block 70s from the assembly line in Greenville, South Carolina, which opened in 2021 after the original line was relocated from Fort Worth, Texas, to make room for F-35 expansion.

The U.S. and Israel attack on Iran starting on Feb. 28 prompted a strong regional response from Tehran, which targeted its neighbors with waves of missile and drone attacks. Bahrain has been a frequent target of Iranian weapons during the 38-day war, which entered a brittle, two-week-long truce on April 7.

Bahraini forces intercepted a total of 194 missiles and 515 drones launched by Iran toward the island kingdom in the Persian Gulf since Feb. 28, the Syrian Arab News Agency reported on April 9, citing the Bahrain Defense Force.