January 1, 2008 Lockheed Gets $498 mn
Contract
to Sell F-16s to Pakistan By Arun
Kumar
Washington
The US Defence Department has awarded a $498.2 million contract to
Lockheed Martin Corp to supply 18 F-16 aircraft to Pakistan just ten
days after the US Congress slapped restrictions on military aid to
Islamabad.
Lockheed will sell 12 F-16C plus six F-16D planes to Pakistan under
the contract, the department announced in a list of defence contract
awards Monday, but did not say how soon the fighter jets would be
delivered.
The award to Lockheed is in line with a senior US official's
assertion that the Congressional restrictions on providing $50
million in military aid to Pakistan would not affect the sales of
F-16 aircraft.
"The F-16 programme is a Pakistani purchase, their money, they're
buying them. And our foreign military finance, our military
assistance goes for different purposes and is not involved at this
point in the F-16 sales," said Richard Boucher, assistant secretary
of state for South and Central Asian affairs.
"So they will be able to continue that and we will be able to
continue our efforts...so they can do the fight against terrorism
that they are in," he said in a media teleconference last month
shortly after Congress linked the military aid to Islamabad's
efforts to fight terror.
Boucher had also expressed confidence that the restrictions would
not prevent the Bush administration from providing military aid to
Pakistan, which has received about $10 billion in US funding since
2001.
Pakistan is to get 18 new F-16C/D fighters by 2010 besides upgrades
for its current fleet of 34 F-16 combat aircraft as part of a $2.1
billion deal for new weapons, avionics, engines, and other equipment
for F-16 fighters announced in September last year.
Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 contractor, won a $144 million
contract in 2006 for materials needed to build the F-16s.
In authorising $300 million in aid to Pakistan, the Congress had
said $50 million of it can only be used after Secretary of State
Condoleezza Rice certifies that Pakistan is making "concerted
efforts" to prevent terrorists and the Taliban from operating inside
its borders.
Boucher said he had little doubt that the administration would get
the money. "We are confident that we will be able to report to
Congress on the developments in the areas that they have
identified," he said.
Asserting, this is very much part of the counter-terrorism effort,
Boucher said: "It goes to TOW missiles. It goes to tactical radios
that their forces can use to plan military operations. And it goes
to support the programme for P-3C aircraft that help them do
maritime patrols."
He added: "Pakistan is currently, for the second time, in command of
the Combined Task Force 150 that patrols the seas off Pakistan and
the Arabian Gulf to prevent terrorist activities on the high seas.
"And the P-3 programme is a complement to that, so they can work
better with us and others in protecting their neighbourhood from
threats of terrorism on the high seas. So, in a variety of different
ways, our military programmes serve to support their capability."
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