Showing posts with label F-16. Show all posts
Showing posts with label F-16. Show all posts

Saturday, June 05, 2010

Iraq to get new F-16's.


from Reuters via Alert5.
"We're still working our way through that, but I think they will be new ones" rather than refurbished F-16s, another option that has been under review, Army General Ray Odierno told reporters at the Pentagon on Friday.
The U.S. Air Force has been quiet for months on the status of an assessment it carried out last year on Iraq's air defense needs and whether it would recommend the F-16 sale.
Under the U.S. government-to-government Foreign Military Sales program, a transfer of such weapons is subject to approvals by the departments of defense and state as well as by Congress.
Odierno said the United States would not meet Iraq's request before the scheduled completion of a phased U.S. troop withdrawal at the end of next year.
"This will be an evolving process over the next several years," said Odierno, a four-star general who commands all U.S. forces in Iraq.
The F-16 is a powerful symbol of political and military cooperation with the United States and a potential key to fostering post-withdrawal U.S. and Iraqi security ties
Kind of disappointing that the F/A-18 Super Hornet wasn't even considered.  I wonder what block and how much tech will be included in it.  Iraq might be an "ally" but I don't believe they will be a reliable one.