Morocco will receive in 2021 the country's first F16 Viper fighter jet, a single-engine supersonic multirole fighter aircraft originally developed by General Dynamics for the United States Air Force. According to French-language online newspaper Le360, these new fighter jets were ordered by the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces from the American aerospace and defense company Lockheed Martin. «Morocco was one of the first African countries to express interest in acquiring a number of F16 Viper», said US General Bill Fredericks in charge of the F16 program. The purchasing of the new fighter jets was «discreetly concluded at the end of 2017, after a delegation from the Royal Moroccan Armed Forces visited Washington where it met with several industrial groups operating in the field». In addition to the F16 Viper fighter jets, the Kingdom «intends to change all its current fleet and adapt it to the same standard», added the same source. Morocco bought in 2011 24 F16 fighter jets, before one of these aircrafts was defeated in 2015 by Houthis in Yemen.
