US to ask Congress to approve F-16 sale to Pakistan

[Abbas Ali]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration will formally ask Congress to approve the sale of American-made F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan, Undersecretary of State Nick Burns said on Thursday.

He made the announcement after talks with Pakistani Foreign Secretary Riaz Khan, who said the package would be scaled-down from an earlier request and include old as well as new aircraft.

After a devastating October 8 earthquake, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf said he would postpone the purchase of F-16s -- built by Lockheed Martin Corp. -- while the government assessed how it would meet the costs of reconstruction and rehabilitation in devastated parts of Pakistani Kashmir and the North West Frontier Province.

Burns said he reassured Khan "we are committed to the sale of American F-16 aircraft to Pakistan and we intend to begin (formal) consultations with Congress shortly."

Other than saying it would be a "scaled down request (with) some new and some old" jets, Khan said he could provide no further information. The details of the package "keep getting revised," he told a news conference.

Earlier in the month, Pakistan's cabinet gave its air force clearance to open negotiations to buy 36 Jian-10 fighter aircraft from China and 62 F-16s from the United States.

The shopping list included 36 modified versions of China's Jian-10 aircraft, along with 26 F-16s of Type A and B, and 18 F-16s of the latest Block 50/52 C and D type models, with an option for 18 more, defense officials in Islamabad said at the time, confirming a report in the Business Recorder newspaper.

The newspaper, citing an official document, said the government also gave approval for purchase of Beyond Visual Range (BVR) missiles, targeting pods and joint direct attack munitions.

Since the earthquake, the international community has offered over $6 billion in aid and soft loans to help Pakistan recover from the disaster. Though no official figures have been released, the cost of the F-16s alone is expected to be around $2.5 billion.

The costs for the Jian-10 and the BVR missiles are also estimated to run into billions of dollars.

Source: Yahoo News

[Abbas Ali]

Pakistan to pay for 44 F-16s from its own kitty

By Hanif Khalid

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will purchase 44 F-16 fighter planes from the United States, of which only 18 will be brand new while 26 will be used ones.

Pakistan, which had originally asked the US to provide 72 brand new F-16 aircraft, will have to pay the price of the 44 planes from its own kitty, though it was assumed last year that their price would be paid from the US military aid announced during President Pervez Musharraf’s visit to Washington.

The US Air Force and the Navy have been using these 26 planes for 20 years for training purposes. Initially, the planes were manufactured for delivery to the Pakistan Air Force during General Zia’s regime, which paid $650 million for them.

The US will now charge about $12 million more as the price of these secondhand F-16 planes. The 18 brand new planes will be provided at approximately $50 million per piece, with the overall deal estimated to cost Pakistan $1.2 billion.

All the 44 planes will be delivered to Pakistan within 30 months. The first batch of the used planes will be handed over to the country before the commencement of the general election next year.

Source: The News