Western arms experts have dismissed the
idea of Venezuela selling Iran US-built F-16
fighter planes as a far-fetched "political snipe",
and analysts also said the plan had no military
significance.
Member of the Chiefs of
Staff General Alberto Mueller Rojas has suggested
that his country might sell its entire force of 21
US-built F-16 fighter planes to Iran.
Andrew Brooks, a military-aviation
specialist at the International Institute of
Strategic Studies in London, said he did not take
the scenario seriously. "I think it is part of the
- what can I say - theatrical performances between
President [Hugo] Chavez and Washington," Brooks
said.
Brooks is referring to the
increasingly antagonistic relations
between the hardline leftist
leader Chavez and the administration of President
George W Bush.
Aging planes The
F-16s were delivered to Venezuela in 1983-84, more
than two decades ago. Although the type is still
generally regarded as one of the world's best
lightweight fighters, the early Venezuelan version
is outdated in its capability to act as a platform
for modern electronically controlled weapons.
"These are aeroplanes designed to be used
10, 20, 30, [or] 40 years ago," Brooks said. "If
you use them now against anybody of renown in the
Middle East, you will get hacked out of the sky."
Another military aviation expert, Peter
Felstead, the editor of Jane's Defense Weekly,
said the Venezuelan suggestion sounded like it was
designed mainly "to annoy President Bush".
"I see this purely as a sort of an
antagonistic political snipe," Felstead said. "I
would be surprised if in reality this deal went
ahead."
A spare-parts
fix Felstead said that one of Venezuela's
dilemmas was how to keep the American-built F-16s
airworthy in the face of a lack of spare parts
from the United States. Iran would presumably face
the same problem.
The maintenance problem
could be a key reason that Caracas is considering
selling the entire fleet. According to Rojas, it
is planning to buy Russian-built Sukhoi-35
fighters instead.
The Venezuelans are
suggesting that Washington has been refusing for
some time to send spare parts for the F-16s. But
Washington insists this is not the case.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack
noted that on May 15 that the US did indeed ban
all arms sales to Venezuela, accusing that country
of failing to provide assistance in the "war
against terrorism".
But McCormack said
that under the rules of the ban, existing
commercial supply and maintenance contracts were
allowed to stand until they expired. He said that
in the case of Venezuela, some contracts would
last until 2009.
Heard it before? McCormack also said Venezuela was bound by a
previous agreement not to sell the jets without
prior US approval. He downplayed the significance
of Rojas' remarks.
"This is something they
[the Venezuelans] had talked about before. I think
the last time they said they were going to sell
the F-16s to China, [but] China had no interest in
that," McCormack said. "And also I would note that
there seems to be a little difference of opinion
within the Venezuelan government on this [latest]
matter. The minister of defense, I believe, has
backed away from this statement. So I think this
is overheated rhetoric."
McCormack was
referring to remarks in Caracas by Defense
Minister Admiral Orlando Maniglia Ferreira. The
minister said there were currently no formal plans
to sell the F-16s to Iran or any other country.
And the Iranian Embassy in Caracas said no deal
involving the warplanes had been proposed by
Venezuela.
Ironically, the first foreign
customer for the F-16 - beyond four European North
Atlantic Treaty Organization countries - was Iran.
The Shah's government ordered 160 aircraft for the
Imperial Iranian Air Force in 1976. But the
Iranian Revolution of 1979 prompted the
cancellation of that order.
Many of the
F-16s initially intended for Iran were eventually
sold to Israel.
Copyright (c) 2006,
RFE/RL Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave NW,
Washington DC 20036
