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Posted on 11/06/2005 10:36:50 PM PST by indcons
An argument about a 20-year-old military contract with Venezuela erupted this week after President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday he might turn some U.S.-made F-16 fighter planes over to Cuba or China. Chavez says the Pentagon won't sell spare parts or provide maintenance for 22 jets Venezuela purchased in the early 1980s. When you buy weapons from the United States, do you get a service contract?
In most cases, yes. The sale of fighter jets can be negotiated in one of two ways: Either the buyer country works out a deal with a U.S. contractor (with State Department and Pentagon approval), or it goes through the Pentagon's Foreign Military Sales program. Contractors provide warranties and technical support as they would for any sale. The Pentagon also offers service agreements: According to a U.S. military guide for handling FMS transactions, "a newly purchased weapon system without follow-on logistics support rapidly takes on all of the characteristics of a museum piece—impressive, but inert, impotent, and immobile."
(Excerpt) Read more at slate.com ...
What's he going to do? Sue us?
I'm sure Iran had service contracts for their F-14s too. But guess what.....
In reality, there is no connection.
These F-16's are not and were not "lemons". The aircraft work just fine, if they have spares and technical upkeep. These are really early block F-16's, and they need more of both than new ones.
Chavez doesn't want to honor the inspection clause in the contract, which leads me to believe that some of them are in places like North Korea or Iran.
Sounds like the ED-209 argument:
"I had a guaranteed military sale with ED209! Renovation program! Spare parts for 25 years! Who cares if it worked or not!"
ETA: Not cracking on the F-16, the most successful export fighter ever and one of the best combat records, ever.
Arbitrary confiscation would scare potential buyers, making it more difficult to find buyers for surplus/obsolete military hardware in the future.
How is it "arbitrary" when the purchaser has made it plain that they are about to fork the hardware over to avowed enemies of the U.S.? I would think there's a clause in the purchase agreement that prohibits that sort of thing.
20 yea-old F-16s have nothing to offer the Chinese or anybody else. For an airframe as old as the F-16, the value is in the electronics/avionics, and Chavez has the old stuff.
Besides, Israel has already given the Chinese anything of value.
I certainly hope he plans to send them to Cuba on a ship...if they fly, there should be a US escort waiting...:)
While I loathe to see the F-16s perfect combat record come to an end, no better a way than it to come at the hands of an F-15. Unfortunately, a nasty Bug might get the kill.
Sad but true. Since Castro can't even copy the wheels of an F-16 there is no danger from such a deal, although I would hate to see it happen.
"I'm sure Iran had service contracts for their F-14s too. But guess what....."
The war readiness of Iran's F-14 fleet was 20% after just a couple of years. It was zero after 5 years. If Chavez sends the F-16s to Cuba they will be useful only as museum relics or as fodder to claim that the Cubans "shot down" an American jet.
Chavez is like all tinpot dictators, a bunch of hot air. We could monitor the entire transfer process by satellite and shoot down the shipment. He knows it, too. We could destroy them in their current hangars. Then let him whine to the UN.
Why does the third world breed these hateful little despots?
He'll probably cannibalize them for replacement parts for 57 Chebbies.
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