I'm going to have to call total BS on this. Any claims of battle-proven survivability in high-threat environments first requires being in battle.
Operational history
On 7 February 2013, two
fighters briefly entered Japanese airspace off
near
, flying south over the
before turning back to the north.
Four F-2 fighters were scrambled to visually confirm the Russian planes,
warning them by radio to leave their airspace.
A photo taken by a JASDF pilot of one of the two Su-27s was released by the Japan
.
Russia denied the incursion, saying the jets were making routine flights near the
.
On 22 August 2013, two Russian
Bear-F maritime patrol aircraft entered Japanese airspace near the major southern island of Kyushu for less than two minutes. F-2 fighters were scrambled in response.
You could argue since its design is based on the
(a design dating back to 1988 and not relevant to surviving against even J10CE), that it can make such a claim, but the F-16C Block 40 hasn't been in any real high-threat environment either. 2nd or 3rd rate middle eastern countries and Kosovo don't count.