Posted on 01/11/2019 5:44:56 AM PST by sukhoi-30mki
For much of the last week, the press in Israel and Croatia have given frenzied coverage to US objections to Israeli plans to sell the small Eastern European nation 12 used F-16 fighters. On Thursday, the Croatian government announced the deal was officially shelved as Israel had not received approval from Washington to sell the fighters, which were built in the US.
The US decision to 'veto' the Israeli sale of the F-16s draws attention to the complicated nature of export controls in arms sales involving multiple nations. The Croatian F-16 saga also bears some similarities to the now-forgotten story of a Swedish fighter offered for a much larger Indian Air Force tender a decade ago.
In August 2007, after the Indian Air Force issued requests for proposals to six companies to supply 126 fighter aircraft, Sweden's Saab was one of the vendors to respond, offering its Gripen fighter. The Gripen variant originally offered to the Indian Air Force contract was to have featured a significant amount of technology from Israeli companies like IAI.
In 2009, the Jerusalem Post reported the US government had leaned on Israeli officials to pressure IAI to “back out” of the partnership with Saab. The Jerusalem Post reported IAI was to have provided the radar and electronic warfare equipment to the proposed Gripen variant for the Indian Air Force.
Israeli officials told the publication the US was concerned about its technology in “Israeli hands” reaching India, even though two US fighters—the F-16 and F/A-18 Super Hornet—had been competing for the same Indian Air Force deal for 126 jets, which had an estimated value of around $12 billion. It was speculated that the US objection stemmed from the disadvantage caused to its companies by the presence of the Israeli technology on the Gripen.
(Excerpt) Read more at theweek.in ...
PR image from Saab from circa 2008 of the Gripen IN carrying Israeli missiles
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