Pakistan seeks as many as 75 new F-16 warplanes

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissinfo.html?siteSect=143&sid=5818848&cKey=1117070419000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Pakistan has sought prices for buying as many as 75 new F-16 C/D Falcon fighter aircraft since the Bush administration announced it would resume sales, the head of the Pentagon agency handling the matter said on Wednesday.

Pakistan also has asked about buying 11 used F-16s, said Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which runs U.S. government-to-government arms sales.

Many experts had expected Pakistan to seek only about two dozen F-16s, said Richard Aboulafia of Teal Group, a Virginia-based aerospace consultancy.

The numbers cited by Kohler show it wants to make the F-16 a mainstay of its combat aircraft fleet, he said, adding this was "very ambitious in terms of regional strategy and very costly."

See what being a thuggish dictator and renegade nuclear technology exporter who builds and tests nuclear weapons and missiles to deliver them gets from Bush. Isn't that nice?

[oblivious]

1. Maybe they should exchange F-16s for soldiers. Subcontract the war.

[MichiganVote]

2. And now for the new and improved Pakistani war looming...

Iraq will be but a pimple on the future of the ME and the United States.

[whistle]

3. That's a nice piece of business for Lockheed Martin for....

...$2.8 billion plus and represents another Muslim nation getting high tech weapon's system to contribute to the instability of that part of the world.

[physioex]

7. Ain't it screwed up.....

The country is in utter poverty. The population has no clean water, education, or access to health care. Yet there is billions of dollars to go around for an unnecessary war machine. And guess who is more than happy to supply this?

[htuttle]

4. At $40 million a piece, that's $3 billion dollars

Where are they getting the money from? Textiles? Pakistan has no oil.

Wait...are WE going to 'loan' it to them? (wink, wink)

:mad:

[varun]

10. Why? We have the US Taxpayers of course!

Didnt US promise $3 billion aid to Pakistan last year?

Guess where its going...

[oblivious]

12. That's 5% of Pakistan's GNP. Like the US spending 500b on one order.

Must be nice to be such a rich country.

[geckosfeet]

5. India will never forget the betrayal.

[Massacure]

6. Plus India and China share common goals don't they?

[physioex]

8. That's a mixed bag....

Believe it or not, there are some disputed territories between India and China as well......

[billbuckhead]

9. It's good for jobs in our defense industry Pakistan is hungry for jets

Want to bet Lockheed isn't over there egging them on to buy as many as they can? Probably bribing Mushareff and his entourage. Since Russia is a major arms supplier to India and China is now involved in a detente with India, it is hard for Pakistan to get modern jets from other suppliers. They've been waiting to buy some modern planes for a long time and are afraid the opportunity might not come up again. Pakistan has a lot of pent up demand for fighter planes. They have a few old F16's and a bunch of obsolete Chinese planes. The need to improve is crucial since India is evolving into a world class air super power. India builds some of their own planes, buy top of the line Russian and French planes and even have aircraft carriers. The Indian Air force recently had Top Gun type simulations with the US Air force and were supposed to acquitted themselves quite well.


<http://samariaf0.tripod.com/copeb.html>
(Source:Aviation Week & Space Technology,10/04/2004, page 50 : David A. Fulghum, Elmendorf AFB, Alaska)

3rd Wing explains what happened when U.S. pilots faced innovative Indian air force tactics

The losing performance of F-15Cs in simulated air-to-air combat against the Indian air force this year is being perceived by some, both in the U.S. and overseas, as a weakening of American capabilities, and it is generating taunts from within the competitive U.S. fighter community.

The Cope India exercise also seemingly shocked some in Congress and the Pentagon who used the event to renew the call for modernizing the U.S. fighter force with stealthy F/A-22s and F-35 Joint Strike Fighters.

The reasons for the drubbing have gone largely unexplained and been misunderstood, according to those based here with the 3rd Wing who participated. Two major factors stand out: None of the six 3rd Wing F-15Cs was equipped with the newest long-range, active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars. These Raytheon APG-63(V)2 radars were designed to find small and stealthy targets. At India's request, the U.S. agreed to mock combat at 3-to-1 odds and without the use of simulated long-range, radar-guided AIM-120 Amraams that even the odds with beyond-visual-range kills.

-------------snip----------------------

[fortyfeetunder]

16. India: be vewy, vewy afraid

I think the Pakistanis are just getting prepared to get it on....

[Selatius]

11. India is going to be PISSED

What's going to happen? India asks Russia to see if they can purchase some new MiG-29s or some Su-27 fighters. The Russians will probably agree to sell the Indians more, since India is already a client state of Russia as far as military hardware goes.

[daleo]

13. Then Bush will sell that many again to India.

Just like the old Krupp Company, circa WWI.

[NNN0LHI]

15. I have read India is purchasing F-16's from us

Not sure how many of them though.

Don

[agincourt]

14. Note the rewards a country gets,

When their security intelligence head wires money to a September 11 hijacker. Note the reward also they get, when one of their generals tell bin Laden the cruise missles are coming. And shrub basks in the security moms smiles, this country will have a hard time getting dumber in the future.