F-16 supply to Pakistan to continue, says US

The Times of India ^

[MBT ARJUN]

WASHINGTON: Despite all the hissing and spitting from both sides in course of a deteriorating bilateral relationship, the Obama administration has clarified that the United States is continuing to supply new F-16s to Pakistan and upgrading the existing fleet.

"Some media have reported a stoppage in the US-Pakistan F-16 program. These reports are not accurate. Neither Pakistan nor the United States has cancelled the F-16 program," a US official said on Thursday, contesting some of the virulent anti-US grievances published in the Pakistani press.

The official maintained that planned delivery of the last "new-buy" F-16 purchased by Pakistan is scheduled to arrive in Pakistan from the United States in late January, 2012. Several other F-16s purchased by Pakistan from the United States are undergoing mid-life upgrades and will arrive in Pakistan beginning in late January, he said, adding that deliveries will continue throughout this year and next.

The American assurance, mainly at the political level, came despite growing antipathy in the US military towards Pakistan for its alleged perfidy in the war on terrorism. The situation has been aggravated by the U.S hunting down and killing Osama bin Laden outside a Pakistani military cantonment in Abbottabad (which Pakistan perceived as a hostile act) and the recent border incident in which Nato troops killed 24 Pakistani soldiers, following which the Pakistani military has threatened to shoot down any US intrusion -- mainly with US supplied hardware.

This possibility -- of American military aid being used against US troops -- moved a decorated U.S marine to file a lawsuit, but the Obama administration appears unfazed by the prospect. As it is, there is a strong anti-American narrative in Pakistan where it concerns F16s (which Pakistanis see as a symbol of their military virility) because of the past history of Washington withholding supplies as part of nuclear-related sanctions. Evidently, Washington does not want to aggravate the mood just now.

This narrative of false grievance persists, with official Pakistani encouragement, despite experts pointing out that Islamabad knew full well it would be sanctioned if it crossed the nuclear threshold. The Clinton administration later reimbursed Pakistan for the stalled f-16, before its successor Bush regime agreed to resume supplies and also compensated with billions of dollars in military aid after 9/11. Arguments by US analysts and protests by New Delhi that the F-16 was not useful in the fight against terrorism and was mainly a weapon against India (besides the potential of biting the US itself) has not impressed Washington mandarins constantly striving to appease Pakistan.

[ravager]

I guess not.