Posted on 05/25/2005 7:14:47 PM PDT by Saberwielder
Pakistan seeks as many as 75 new F-16 warplanes
Reuters
Wednesday, May 25, 2005; 9:18 PM
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."
The single-engine, multi-role F-16 is built by Maryland-based Lockheed Martin Corp. . The new purchases would flesh out a fleet of about 32 F-16s acquired before Congress cut off sales in 1990 over Pakistan's nuclear program.
Kohler, in an interview with Reuters, said Pakistan had requested F-16 Block 50/52 aircraft, the most modern flown by the United States and the current production standard, similar to exports to Poland, Greece, Chile, Oman and Israel.
Only the United Arab Emirates flies a more advanced variant, Block 60, with improved radar, defenses and range.
Asked about any Pakistani interest in the Block 60 model, Kohler said: "They did not ask for it and I don't think they could afford it." Kohler held arms-sale talks with defense ministry officials in Pakistan and India last month.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
How much are they paying for these F-16 cruise missles?
Why not? Although a good dogfighter, it's getting more obselescent by the day.
Obsolescent for us not for most of the world. Imagine a nuclear armed radical Islamic country with 115 odd F-16s...
Ping!
That's what I mean. As long as our stuff is better, what does it matter so much what they've got?
Well, it's irrelevant to our interests if they have F-16s to carry their nukes- they couldn't even reach Israel with an F-16, much less the US.
Incidentally, Israel has the longest-range F-16- the F-16i - bought specifically to give them the capability to bomb Iran. Sadly, they only have a dozen or so of them now (last I checked) though I believe we're sending about 2 a month to them.
Israel does have a few dozen F-15i aircraft, which can also reach Iran.
It's not us I'm concerned about. Pakistan will not wait long before trying another attack on India. We should not be giving such weapons in such numbers to failing states especially with nukes. Economic aid, sure, but modern weapons in such quantities?
That information is above my pay grade.;-)
Incidentally, I'm very glad Pakistan is buying so much of its air defense capability from the US. Buying F-16s means they will need spare parts from the US, which means we will have leverage over them. For this reason, I'm kind of surprised they chose to buy from us, rather than the French. France would keep selling them planes as long as they didn't bomb Paris.
Pakistan won't attack India- India has several dozen nukes. Nuclear detente prevails in that region.
ping!
I propose a deal. When the Pakistan military gets us Osama, they will get their airplanes.
Pakistan is Muslim .....MAD doesn't apply to Islam (and if I had some extra time i would dredge up a report where some Pakistani military dude states it would be alright for them to lose Karachi, Islamabad and Lahore if it meant taking out Mumbai and Delhi).
You also have to consider as well that India has a vast qualitative and quantitative edge over Pakistan, meaning that if a war broke out between the two Pakistan would be seriously pressured into using its nuclear options (since it would quickly run out of conventional approaches). There was actually an Indian military report where the head honchos over there feared that as they increased the distance between themselves and Pakistan that the Pakistanis would soon have no option (if a war broke out) than to resort to nukes.
Exactly right.
PAK military can't get UBL without American SOF leading the Op -
Pull the plug on backstabber Musharraf and on Pakistan in general.
Actually,Israel,Greece & the UAE are all buying long(er) range variants of the F-16 equipped with CFTs.There is nothing to suggest that Pakistan wouldn't want such a variant,but it would make sense given that all it's current aircraft have short legs & no aerial refuelling capability.
That would in theory put the US naval replenishment base at Diego Garcia within range & also enable it to reach any of Pakistan's numerous allies in the Persian Gulf like Saudi Arabia or the UAE.& the Pakistanis have had a history of helping out their Arab brethren with Israel.
PS-Ever thought about these fighters ending up in Chinese hands??
Umm,firstly Pakistan is not buying from the US in the conventional sense-they have been recieving under half a billion US $ in military aid since Sept 11th.For that very reason,the French won't sell to them.Why sell to a semi bankrupt regime which can only afford 40 aircraft,when it's neighbour can afford close to 4 times that number.You are also off the mark on the spare parts issue-Take a look at their airforce inventory-close to 50% of their systems are Chinese & will remain Chinese.They are in the process of buying close to 150 FC-1 fighters from China,KS-1 SAMs & also the SD-10 medium range AAMs.So much for Leverage!!!
It has been posted here on several occasions that Pakistan leased one or two to China. Anyone verify?
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