Leidos has been awarded a $475 million contract by the Air Force Sustainment Center's 416th Supply Chain Management Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to provide comprehensive product support integration for the F-16 Avionics Intermediate Shop program. The award, dated May 22, 2026, positions Leidos as the linchpin of a global sustainment network that keeps one of the world's most widely operated fighter jets mission-ready.
What the Contract Covers
The F-16 Avionics Intermediate Shop, known as the AIS program, is the technical backbone for diagnosing, testing, and repairing the sophisticated electronics packages installed on F-16 Fighting Falcons. Leidos will deliver a broad suite of services under this contract, including management and maintenance of automatic test systems and test program sets, sustaining engineering, software development, obsolescence mitigation, and supply chain risk management.
Automatic test systems are the specialized rigs used by maintenance crews to rapidly diagnose avionics faults without removing entire electronic line-replaceable units from the aircraft. Test program sets are the software packages that tell those rigs how to interrogate specific avionics boxes. Keeping both current and functional as underlying chip technology ages out is an enormous and continuous engineering challenge — one that Leidos has been tackling on this program for nearly a decade.
Obsolescence mitigation is a particularly critical element of the work. The F-16 entered service in 1978, and while the airframe has been continuously modernized, many of its avionics subsystems rely on microelectronic components that commercial manufacturers stopped producing years ago. Leidos must source, qualify, or re-engineer replacement parts while ensuring that the aircraft's performance and safety certifications remain intact.
A Global Mission Set
The scope of this contract extends well beyond the United States Air Force. Leidos will provide support not only to USAF F-16 fleets but also to European allied air forces and customers receiving aircraft through Foreign Military Sales channels. That global footprint reflects the F-16's status as the most exported Western fighter in history, with more than 25 nations operating the platform at various points in its decades-long production run.
For allied nations — including Belgium, Denmark, Greece, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, and others transitioning their inventories — maintaining avionics supportability is as strategically important as it is for the U.S. Air Force. A grounded allied F-16 due to an unavailable avionics test set is a NATO readiness problem, not just a logistical inconvenience. The breadth of the AIS program's reach makes Leidos's role central to interoperability commitments across the alliance.
The contract also supports foreign military sales customers in the Middle East and Asia-Pacific regions, where the F-16 remains a front-line fighter for several partner nations. As the U.S. government continues to use FMS agreements as a foreign policy and industrial base tool, sustainment contracts like this one become increasingly important to maintaining those relationships.
Continuation of a Long-Running Program
This award is a continuation of work Leidos has performed under a predecessor contract first awarded in 2018, which carried a ceiling of up to $620 million. The new contract builds on that institutional knowledge base, reflecting the Air Force's confidence in Leidos's performance and its ability to manage the increasingly complex obsolescence challenges facing the F-16 fleet.
Hill Air Force Base serves as the primary depot for F-16 maintenance in the United States, making it the natural hub for the AIS program. The 416th Supply Chain Management Squadron, which manages the contract, is responsible for ensuring that parts, test equipment, and technical data flow smoothly to maintenance crews wherever F-16s operate.
The F-16's future is longer than many anticipated even a decade ago. The U.S. Air Force has been delivering F-16s to Ukraine as part of allied security assistance, and several NATO allies are actively upgrading their fleets to the latest Block 70/72 standard rather than transitioning entirely to fifth-generation aircraft. That extended operational horizon means the AIS program will remain relevant — and well-funded — for many years to come.
What It Means for Contractors
The Leidos F-16 AIS award illustrates a durable dynamic in defense sustainment: legacy platforms with large global fleets generate long-term, high-value contracts that reward incumbency and deep institutional knowledge. For contractors seeking entry into Air Force sustainment work, this award is a reminder that Hill AFB and the 416th SCMS manage a substantial portfolio of similar programs covering not just the F-16 but also the F-15, C-130, and A-10 fleets. Competitors who want a share of the next recompete cycle should begin building past performance and teaming relationships now — the sustainment contracting community at Hill is relatively small and well-networked.
Subcontracting opportunities are significant in programs of this nature. Automatic test equipment manufacturers, software developers specializing in embedded military systems, component distributors with access to obsolete part stocks, and supply chain risk management firms are all potential tier-two participants. Leidos routinely publicizes subcontracting opportunities through its supplier portal, and the AIS program's global scope means geographically diverse subcontractors — including those in allied nations — can legitimately contribute to the work. Small businesses with relevant NAICS codes in electronics repair and maintenance or defense systems software should register in Leidos's supplier database and track future open subcontracting opportunities.
The obsolescence mitigation dimension of the work is particularly noteworthy for smaller defense electronics firms. Companies that specialize in last-time buys, die banking, form-fit-function replacements, and trusted foundry solutions for obsolete components occupy a valuable niche in sustainment contracts like this one. The Defense Microelectronics Activity, which manages related government programs, is a parallel avenue for firms with those capabilities.
More broadly, the $475 million ceiling signals that the Air Force views F-16 sustainment as a priority investment even as fifth-generation and emerging platforms absorb an increasing share of modernization budgets. For contractors, that means the avionics sustainment market at Hill AFB will remain active and competitive throughout the early 2030s. Firms should also monitor SAM.gov for task orders and modifications issued against predecessor vehicles, as sustainment programs of this scale frequently generate supplemental awards for specific technical areas or geographic support requirements beyond the original scope.
