John Hoffman

Since 1981, the F-16 has dominated bombing and gunnery competitions worldwide with a 90 percent win rate. This includes the US Air Force's "Gunsmoke" air-to-ground and "William Tell" air-to-air competitions.
In air-to-air combat F-16s have compiled a 69-to-0 air-to-air exchange ratio with guns and infrared and radar missiles. F-16s achieved the first three combat kills with an AMRAAM missile. In the early 1980s the F-16s effectively destroyed several high-value targets and mobile surface-to-air missile (SAM) sites without a loss.
The F-16 was the workhorse of Operation Desert Storm, flying 13,500 sorties with 250 aircraft, including Air National Guard aircraft from the 169th Fighter Wing, South Carolina, and the 174th Fighter Wing, New York. F-16s provided more than 40 percent of US Air Force bomb dropping sorties and delivered 20,000 tons of bombs during the Persian Gulf War.
During the war, the aircraft performed a variety of missions, including Scud chasing and Killer Scout (Fast Forward Air Controller or Fast FAC) and produced the highest mission-capable and sortie rates of any aircraft in theater. The F-16 proved itself capable of operations from austere forward bases and locations to maximize sortie rates and payloads.
Since the Gulf War, F-16 squadrons from several nations have served in peacekeeping operations by enforcing United Nations "no-fly" restrictions over Iraq, Bosnia and Kosovo. In these operations, the Fighting Falcon has served successfully in a number of mission roles including combat air patrol, close air support, enemy defense suppression, reconnaissance and Fast FAC.
The F-16 Fighting Falcon is well over 20 years old; but still an incredibly spectacular powerhouse of weapons, a super ship, without equal. Improvements and upgrades over the years have added weight, but the F-16 is smaller and more nimble than many fighters of its type.
This marvelous war machine with features such as lightweight computers, "fly-by-wire" electronic controls, and an arsenal of high-tech weapons make it a genuine jack-of-all-trades doing so many jobs so well. An airplane in service with many nations, the F-16 can rightly be regarded as one of the finest examples of standard fighter.
The Fighting Falcon is formidable in many situations. In the interceptor role, the F-16 can blast aloft in next to no time and destroy incoming bombers before they can get within letal range.
Over the battlefield, in close air support, the F-16 can destroy enemy tanks and ground positions with a variety of bombs and missiles. For air superiority, the F-16 clears the battle zone of enemy fighters.
In the role of suppression, the Fighting Falcon destroys enemy radars with high-tech missiles allowing other friendly aircraft to fly in safety. With precision strike laser-guided bombs, the F-16 attacks strategic targets such as buildings and power stations.
Giampaolo Agostinelli has flown and driven thousands of miles criss-crossing continental United States documenting the F-16. Thanks to the massive bubble canopy of the F-16 Mr. Agostinelli captures this fast and sleek aircraft on film as only a world-class photographer can do.
You will find "Vipers in The Sky" an interesting and excellent study that is historically rich in information about the phenomenal Fighting Falcon. Flying the F-16 is like nothing you can imagine in your wildest dreams and Giampaolo Agostinelli takes the reader in majestic flight that sometimes is as close as one gets without arming the ejection seat!

John Hoffman