Zarvan
ELITE MEMBER
- Joined
- Apr 28, 2011
- Messages
- 54,470
- Reaction score
- 87
- Country
- Location
US Air Force
Two F-15E from the 90th Fighter Squadron, Elmedorf AFB, Alaska, fire a pair of AIM-7M's during a training mission.
WASHINGTON — A group of Republican lawmakers is pressing the White House to approve long-delayed fighter jet sales to Bahrain, Kuwait and Qatar and open up about why it has taken so long.
The sales have been pending for more than two years, but the White House has not yet allowed them to move forward. The hold-up has been linked to Israel’s concerns that its qualitative military edge (QME) — which it is US policy to protect — would be eroded if its neighbors obtained the jets. Members of Congress are likely to have concerns of their own about the repercussions of such sales for the region.
Senate Foreign Relations Chairman Bob Corker said Tuesday he expects the White House to clear jet sales to all three countries after the conclusion of negotiations for the US's new aid package to Israel, a follow-on to the $30 billion, 10-year memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed in 2007. Corker supports the jet sales in line with the US-Gulf Cooperation Council summit in 2015, which yielded a declaration of deeper ties between the US and its Gulf allies.
"Everyone says there's no linkage" between the MoU and the fighter jet sales, "and I happen to think there's linkage," said Corker, R-Tenn. "Again, when the MoU is completed, hopefully as part of that, or shortly thereafter, these sales will be completed ... We're not getting a lot of clarity on these issues [from the White House]."
Reps. Rodney Freylinghuysen, R-N.J., Kay Granger, R-Texas, and Ander Crenshaw, R-Fla., signed the July 6 letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and White House National Security Advisor Susan Rice, which argued the “unacceptable” delays are undermining relationships with Mideast allies who are needed for the multinational fight against the Islamic State. Granger chairs the House State and Foreign Operations Appropriations Subcommittee, Freylinghuysen chairs the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, while Crenshaw serves on both subcommittees.
“Inexplicably, at the same time we have asked our partners in the region to assume greater roles in this fight, their requests for U.S. equipment languish,” the letter reads. “In some cases, their requests wait for years. This is unacceptable and must be rectified immediately. We are acutely aware of the harmful repercussions of these continued delays.”
“They are putting strain on important relationships with partners in the fight, driving countries to purchase weapons from China and Russia, risking U.S. military interoperability with our partners, and damaging the U.S. manufacturing and industrial base.”
DEFENSE NEWS
Kuwait Signs Eurofighter Jet Deal
The lawmakers asked for a briefing by July 14 that includes how and when the administration will resolve the cases.
Qatar has requested 36 to 72 F-15E Strike Eagles and Kuwait requested 28 F-18E/F Super Hornets, both made by Boeing. Bahrain is reportedly in the market for as many as 18 F-16 Fighting Falcons, made by Lockheed Martin.
The delays have driven Kuwait to sign a deal for 28 Eurofighter jets and Doha to buy 24 French Rafale as an alternative to a portion of the fighters initially planned for purchase from the US. It also threatens Boeing’s 40-year-old F-15 production line in St. Louis, Missouri.
Boeing Defense chief executive Leann Caret, said Sunday in London that customers were, “hanging in there with us” while employees were looking forward to building the aircraft. While the arms transfer process is taking longer than Boeing wants, Caret acknowledged, "you’re dealing with a global perspective and there are issues that from a US perspective, in these nations, that they have to deal with."
DEFENSE NEWS
State: $33 Billion in GCC Weapon Sales in 11 Months
Thorny geopolitical concerns are at the root of the delay. One Senate staffer affirmed Corker's assessment that ongoing negotiations between the US and Israel over a consolidated aid package are likely part of the calculus for the US, adding that Israel may be seeking a hedge against its neighbors buying the jets, on top of the 33 US-made F-35 Lightning II jets it is set to buy.
"If I were the Israeli government and I knew our government was required by law and policy to do QME assessments on potential military sales in the region, I would see what I could get beyond the F-35 sale, which is already locked in," the staffer said.
Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee who has criticized certain US arms sales to the region, said the US must be cognizant that Mideast allies who once bought US hardware as "showpieces" are now using it to wage war.
"They're being used to kill civilians, so we need to be a lot more careful today than we have been in the past," Murphy said of US arm sales. "There is an open proxy war in the region between Saudi Arabia and its allies, and Iran — and both sides are arming up, getting ready for the next front in that proxy war."
DEFENSE NEWS
State Dept. Official: Foreign Weapon Sales Reform Unnecessary
As it weighs the sales, the White House is likely weighing potential objections from Congress, to include Bahrain's human rights record and Israel's sensitivity to Qatar's support of Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. Citing Bahrain's progress on human rights, the Obama administration only last year lifted holds on security assistance to Bahrain in place since Bahrain squelched an uprising in 2011.
"What Bahrain is doing today is not a great advertisement for continued US military sales, but Qatar has taken important steps forward in their fight against extremism and answering some of our concerns about domestic worker rights," Murphy said. "A sale to Bahrain right now would certainly raise my antennae, and I know these Israelis have sensitivities about the Qatari sale. These aren't easy calls."
Kuwait, which hosts the US Army component of US Central Command and is a significant partner to US military operations in the region, wants the jets to replace its aging Hornet fleet. One analyst said this sale seems the most non-controversial and obvious one of the three.
"That's a no-brainer," said Richard Aboulafia, an analyst with the Teal Group who focuses on aerospace. "In addition to the jobs and cash, you also have a lifeline that keeps St. Louis going as a fighter producer for longer than what's in the [US's] pipeline."
DEFENSE NEWS
Boeing, Kuwait Near Super Hornet Deal
For Qatar, owning 72 of the world's best fighter jets, "would be quite an expansion of their military capabilities," Aboulafia said. "There are a million scenarios that could evolve, and they're potentially creating another military force, with expeditionary warfare capability. It takes time to dig through the ramifications."
Under the Arms Export Control Act and US policy, it is not unusual for transfers of major U.S. weapons systems to take "significant interagency consideration and consultation, given the potentially significant long-term implications for U.S. national security interests,” said State Department spokesman Josh Paul.
Paul reaffirmed the US commitment to the security and stability of the Gulf region, citing President Obama’s message at the US-Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in April as well as the US's decades-long efforts to build defense capacity across the region.
DEFENSE NEWS
Senators Begin Push for Jet Sales to Kuwait, Qatar
Lawmakers have been pressuring the administration on the deals for months. With Corker, Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz.; Jack Reed, D-R.I., and Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., in May wrote a letter to Obama urging him to complete the deals.
McCain, as Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, shepherded an annual defense policy bill through the Senate that would streamline the military's security cooperation authorities.
"These things get stalled and don't move forward, and we need to do it," McCain said of foreign military sales more broadly. "There's allies of ours fighting with us against ISIS that need the equipment."
Aaron Mehta contributed to this report from London.
Email: jgould@defensenews.com
Twitter: @reporterjoe
http://www.defensenews.com/story/de...-jet-sales-qatar-kuwait-and-bahrain/86956906/
