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View Full Version : Pentagon Approves Sale Of 18 F-16's To Pakistan From Lockheed



Gold9472
01-02-2008, 08:21 AM
Lockheed to supply 18 F-16s to Pakistan

http://www.reuters.com/article/gc04/idUSN3159264420071231

Mon Dec 31, 2007 6:17pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Lockheed Martin Corp LMT.N> was awarded a $498.2 million contract to supply F-16 aircraft to Pakistan, the Pentagon said on Monday, as Pakistani officials mulled whether to go ahead with a January 8 election after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto.

Lockheed will sell 12 F-16C plus 6 F-16D planes to Pakistan under the contract, the Pentagon said in its daily list of defense contract awards. The Defense Department, which oversees sales of military weapons to foreign governments, did not say how soon the fighter jets would be delivered.

Pakistan has received about $10 billion in U.S. funding since 2001 because Washington views Pakistan as a key ally in President George W. Bush's campaign against terrorism.

Bhutto's death on Thursday wrecked U.S. hopes of a power-sharing deal between her and President Pervez Musharraf, who took power in a 1999 military coup but left the army last month to become a civilian president.

The United States has agreed to sell Pakistan up to 36 new F-16 jets together with refurbished F-16s.

Last month, two senior Democratic U.S. lawmakers urged the suspension of some U.S. military sales, including the sale of F-16 fighter jets, if Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf did not revoke emergency rule.

Lockheed, the Pentagon's No. 1 contractor, won a $144 million contract in 2006 for materials needed to build the F-16s.

dMole
01-02-2008, 01:56 PM
Ummm... isn't Pakistan a "terrorist state," allegedly harboring Osama bin Osman?

HINT: some of the 9/11 "missing links" are Lt. Gen. Mahmoud Ahmad, Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh, Richard Armitage, Gen. Pervez Musharraf, Senator Bob Graham, Rep. Porter Goss, etc. Also google "nuclear arms race India Pakistan."

I don't think we're supposed to sell weapons to those guys- it is called an ITAR violation, I believe (as in go directly to Fort Leavenworth, KS or worse).