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Love for Pakistan cost the USAF chief his job
Mian Saifur Rehman
Sunday, June 19, 2011
LAHORE: A former US Air Force Chief of Staff Gen T Michael Moseley was forced to resign primarily for taking a strong informal stance towards Pakistan which resulted in almost free delivery of 14 state-of-the-art F-16 aircraft to Pakistan in 2007-08.
Gen Moseley resigned not only for other problems in the US Air Force nuclear programmes handling but also for taking a strong, informal stance towards Pakistan which resulted in the de-commissioning of 14 state-of-the-art F-16s from USAF followed by their immediate delivery to Pakistan, almost gratis. It was almost a practical one-time waiver of the Pressler Amendment, done at the level of American security establishments top brass as some kind of a CBM between USAF and PAF without the direct involvement of high-level decision-makers, reveal the sources.
The rationale behind this so-called CBM was, in fact, the acknowledgment on the part of one or two US Air Force top executives in general and the then USAF Chief of Staff, General Moseley, in particular that their Pakistani counterparts have fulfilled their international obligations fairly and proved their mettle in the realm of airpower.
Pakistanis privy to this deal, however, say that they are not clear whether General Moseley was punished at the behest of anti-Pakistan lobby dominating the American administrative echelons during the incumbency of Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen as Defense Secretary and Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, respectively for a deviation of the past but that Pakistans security establishment of those times made the USAF acknowledge its professional worth in real terms, is an undeniable reality.
The US Embassy in Islamabad did not respond to questions sent to them to comment on these reports.
Endorsing the American sources claim of this goodwill delivery, the Pakistani sources have revealed that a total of 14 F-16s were decommissioned from USAF inventory and declared EDA (Excess Defence Articles) which was, in a way, the technique applied to ensuring the smooth delivery of these aircraft to Pakistan, a country that had already suffered huge losses in monetary and airpower terms for years due to the negative clampdown of the infamous, strangulating Pressler Amendment.
As the facts go, these 14 F-16s (Block 20 Z model) were part of the total 28 F-16s that were manufactured in 1990-92 but were held back due to Pressler. Pakistan also did not have to pay much for these 14 EDA (Excess Defence Articles) aircraft except for a nominal amount of around two million dollars that was the cost of de-modification (from USAF configuration to PAF configuration) and for ferry of those aircraft to Pakistan by US pilots.
These aircraft were old on calendar, they were as good as new aircraft since, by the time of delivery to Pakistan in 2007-2008, these F-16s had just flown an average of 500-600 hours each as against F-16s service life of 8000 flying hours.
As for the remaining 14 F-16s that were a part of the previous deal, the US Navy did not release those aircraft at that time, reveal the sources. However, the money paid to the US for these withheld aircraft was recovered by Pakistan, to some extent, in the shape of dollars and commodities. In September 2006, Pakistan also signed a contract with the US for additional 18 F-16s C and D model of Block-52, each costing approximately $45 million and Pakistan paid for these aircraft and related equipment and weapons that arrived in Pakistan during 2010-11.
http://www.thenews.com.pk/TodaysPrintDetail.aspx?ID=53410&Cat=2&dt=6/19/2011
