The F-16 Fighting Falcon was produced by General Dynamics who became Lockheed who then merged with Martin Marietta to become Lockheed Martin. The F-16 entered service in January 1979 as a multi-role jet fighter that evolved into an all-weather multi-role aircraft capable of sustaining 9-g turns. The F-16 is relatively inexpensive to purchase and maintain so the U.S. and 25 other countries added it to their inventory. The Fighting Falcon is referred to by its pilots as the Viper and will remain in USAF service until 2025.
The Turkish Air Force (Turk Hava Kuvvetleri, THK) operate 240 F-16C and Ds making it one of the largest in the world. On March 23, 2014 two Syrian MiG-23s approached the Turkish border where one aircraft turned back and remained in Syrian airspace while the second aircraft, according to the Turkish Government continued to fly into Turkish airspace where it was shot down using an AIM-120 AMRAAM missile fired by F-16C 91-0008 belonging to 182nd Filo of the 8th Main Jet Base Group Command at Diyarbakir.