A few days before the 2026 edition of the Marrakesh Airshow, on October 6, the first F-16 Block 72 flew from the Lockheed Martin Greenville facility in South Carolina. The dual-seat F-16D, serial no 8041, is the first Block 72 powered by the Pratt & Whitney F100-PW-229 powerplant to fly. There are 25 Block 72s on order by the Royal Moroccan Air Force (RMAF), ordered in 2018 at a cost of around $ 3.8 billion but neither the RMAF or US has disclosed yet how many are dual-seaters
These highly capable F-16s are equipped with the AN/APG-83 AESA radar and according to the RMAF will come armed with the AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM – the export version of the AIM-120D believed to have a range of around 180 km (112 miles). That is considered to be double the range of the AIM-120C.
According to sources at the Marrakesh Airshow, which took place from October 7-10, the new aircraft should start being delivered in late-2027/early-2028 and either re-equip the two Mirage F1-VI squadrons at Sidi Slimane air base or delivered to Ben Guerir where the current F-16 Block 52+s are based, and they could be transferred to Sidi Slimane.
Meanwhile EDR On-Line learnt at Marrakesh Airshow that the RMAF is not going to upgrade its 23 existing Block 52+ to Block 72. According to a RMAF source there is no point because they are getting the new F-16 Block 72s with the longer-range AIM-120D [equivalent].
In March 2019, the US DSCA (Defense Security Cooperation Agency) announced an agreement to upgrade the RMAF’s existing 23 Block 52+s with the F-16V package that would include the AN/APG-83 Active Electronically Scanned Array (AESA) radar. However, RMAF personnel told EDR On-Line the only major work the older F-16s will go through is a G-LOC upgrade to the Auto-G CAS (Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System) to recover pilots and the aircraft safely.
A pair of F-16 Block 52+s from Ben Guerir were manned by crews from all three squadrons – 1 Escadron ‘Viper’ specialises in operational missions, 2 Escadron ‘Falcon’ is the training squadron, and 3 Escadron ‘Spark’ is the ISR/recce/EW specialist. The weapons load F-16C 08-8014 included AIM-120C5 AMRAAMs on the two wingtips, AIM-9X Sidewinders on the inside (stations two and eight), Laser-JDAMs on twin racks (under right wing), 370-gallon fuel tanks under both wings, 300-gallon fuel tank on centre station, two 500 lb GBU-12 Paveway IIs (on a twin-rack under left wing) and an AN/AAQ-33 Sniper advanced targeting pod on the right chin-intake. The dual-seat F-16D had the AIM-120C5s, AIM-9X, Sniper ATP and drop tanks but not the LJDAMs or GBU-12s. Instead, they were replaced by two large AGM-88 High-speed Anti-Radiation Missiles (HARMs).
The RMAF F-16s also operate the DB110 airborne reconnaissance pod that were ordered with the F-16C/Ds. Morocco has requested six DB-110s as part of its 25 F-16 Block 72 procurement.
Photos courtesy Lockheed Martin and A. Warnes
