F-16 sale to Pakistan : Indian concern
Reports of a renewed Pakistani effort to buy F-16 fighter jets from the US have led India to voice fears that their acquisition could spark off an arms race in South Asia.
Washington however maintains that no such sales are contemplated.
The Washington Times on October 22 quoted an unnamed Indian government official as saying, We are against introducing such advanced weaponry into South Asia.
They are not useful in the war on terror, and experience has shown that they could be used against India. ... They could spark a build up or a weapons race in the region.
Participants at a six-day US-India forum sponsored by the Aspen Institute and the Confederation of Indian Industry that ended Tuesday are believed to have raised the subject before US Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, telling him that such a sale, while manageable for the Indian military, would be taken badly by the Indian public.
Rumsfeld did not offer any comments on the prospects of sale of the F-16s at the meeting Monday, the participants said.
However, an unnamed retired senior Indian military officer said he had an inkling about an initial sale of 18 planes, with another 62 aircraft to be sold later, the Times report said.
Indias concerns surfaced once again in the wake of media reports from Islamabad that quoted Pakistan air chief Air Chief Marshal Kaleem Saadat as saying in September that the US had agreed to consider selling F-16 fighters to Pakistan, providing at least 18 of the planes.
Sadaat followed it up with an interview recently with Janes Defence Weekly, saying the transfers would probably be announced after next months US presidential election.
Last week, Rear Adm. Craig McDonald, head of the office of the US defence representative in Pakistan, was quoted again in the Pakistani media as saying that the Bush administration would go before Congress early next year to seek authorization for the sale.
However, the US State Department minced no words when it bluntly refuted the idea.
There has been absolutely no decision taken anywhere, at any level of the US government, on the sale of F-16s to Pakistan, a department official said on condition of anonymity.
No cause for worry : Experts
However, according to some analysts, India need not lose sleep even if Pakistan manages to acquire more F-16 fighters from the US. After plastering American combat pilots in an exercise earlier this year, IAF top guns now have another reason to be gung ho: their top-notch mean machines have proved more than a match for F-16s, the much-vaunted fighting falcons.
Russian-made Sukhoi-30MKI jets are apparently outgunning American F-16s on several aspects at the ongoing Indo-Singapore air combat exercise in Gwalior.
This is the first-ever face-off between these two sophisticated war machines originating from the two former Cold War adversaries.
Our Sukhois are doing very well against the F-16s (of Singapore Air Force) in terms of manoeuvrability, sophistication of avionics and weapon systems. Similarly, our MiG-29s and Mirage-2000s are also matching up to the F-16s, say IAF sources.
IAF is pitting even its MiG-21s, which constitute over 45 per cent of Indias combat fleet, against F-16s during the Sindex-Ankush exercise in Gwalior.
Ever since the Pakistanis acquired F-16s from the US in the mid-1980s, we wanted to size them up. So, we are matching almost all our planes with F-16s of the Singapore Air Force, which are more advanced than the F-16s of Pakistan, said sources.
The IAF has also tasked its elite combat school to develop manoeuvres for MiG-21s to elude the radar cones of F-16s.
IAF spokesperson Squadron Leader Mahesh Upasani said : Results of the exercise will be assessed only after the debrief. Its premature to comment at this stage.
Instead of F-16s, the US had fielded the F-15C Eagles during the Cope India-04 exercise in February. So, the decks were promptly cleared when Singapore came knocking for training facilities with its F-16s.
