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Rumsfeld pitches in for F-16s
By Richard S Ehrlich
BANGKOK - US Defense Secretary Donald
Rumsfeld reportedly tried to sell F-16 warplanes
capable of firing advanced medium-range air-to-air
missiles (AMRAAMs) to Thailand two days after he
lashed out at China for upgrading its own
military. F-16 sales to Thailand could profit US
corporations, such as Lockheed Martin, Raytheon,
Sechan Electronics Inc, and General Electric,
which are involved in the warplanes' equipment,
weapons and maintenance.
When asked about
Rumsfeld's reported sales-pitch, a tight-lipped US
Embassy spokesperson said on Tuesday, "I can't
confirm or deny what happened in a private
meeting" between Rumsfeld and Thailand's defense
minister.
According to the respected
Bangkok Post, "Rumsfeld has offered to sell an
undisclosed number of F-16 fighter jets to the air
force on a 'special condition', reportedly after
becoming aware the [Thai] government was studying
other options, such as Russian-made [Sukhoi]
SU-30s and Sweden's JAS-39s." Washington's
sweetener for the deal may include allowing
Bangkok to barter unidentified items for the
F-16s, instead of paying the full amount in cash.
Russia has already sold its Sukhoi
warplanes to China, India, Malaysia and Indonesia.
"The SU-30s cost approximately US$34 million each
- considerably more than the F-16," the
Washington-based Federation of American Scientists
said.
Sweden, meanwhile, boasts that its
JAS-39 Gripen warplane is a joint project by Saab
Military Aircraft, Ericsson Microwave Systems,
Volvo Aero Corporation and Celsius Aerotech. The
JAS-39 was constructed after Sweden scrutinized
the US's F-16 and F-18 so the JAS-39's air-to-air
missile could compete with America's Raytheon
AIM-120 AMRAAM.
Anxious not to lose money
from arms sales to other nations, Rumsfeld
reportedly made his offer during private talks at
Bangkok's Defense Ministry with Thai counterpart
General Thammarak Ayudhaya on Monday.
On
Saturday, however, Rumsfeld had blasted China for
upgrading its missiles and other military
technology. "Since no nation threatens China, one
wonders: why this growing [military] investment?"
Rumsfeld asked in his keynote speech at an Asian
security conference in Singapore.
No
nation currently threatens Thailand either, but
next-door neighbor Myanmar was denounced in
January by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
as one of several "outposts of tyranny".
Myanmar was Thailand's worst enemy in past
centuries, when the two Buddhist countries battled
each other with elephant-riding armies, looting
and burning towns and cities and capturing each
other's citizens as slaves.
Today,
however, Thailand currently enjoys increasingly
lucrative commercial relations with Myanmar,
despite occasional skirmishes along their border,
where guerrillas seeking independence - including
some who smuggle opium, heroin and
methamphetamines - battle Myanmar's troops. In the
south, on the other hand, Thailand is fighting a
losing battle against minority ethnic Malay-Muslim
separatists.
America's F-16 warplanes
belatedly patrolled the sky above Washington and
New York after airborne Islamist attacks on
September 11, 2001, and during subsequent false
alarms. But Thailand has not experienced any air
assault by Southeast Asia's Muslim guerrillas.
The US Army, mindful of the possibility,
trained Thai forces in 2004 "to secure an oil
platform that was taken over by terrorists" in the
Gulf of Thailand, where American and other foreign
oil companies drill and pump, according to US Army
Major General Stephen D Tom.
The training
exercise, US Cobra Gold, was conducted "to reclaim
a platform in the water, to take out and disarm
and retake the tower for the benefit of the
commercial establishment that owned it," Major
General Tom said in an interview at the time.
Last year the US also delivered 30
refurbished Black Hawk helicopters to Thailand to
help it fight Muslim militants in the south and
guard against drug trafficking in the north.
In 2003, Washington had delivered at least
eight AMRAAMs to Thailand to arm its 16
second-hand F-16 fighter jets, because of "an
imminent threat" posed by Russian rockets offered
to China and Malaysia, according to weapons
monitors. Cash-strapped Thailand earlier cancelled
its purchase of eight F/A-18 warplanes in 1998
after Bangkok's bubble economy burst, fueling a
regional economic crisis.
Richard S
Ehrlich is a Bangkok-based journalist from San
Francisco, California. He has reported news from
Asia since 1978 and is co-author of Hello My
Big Big Honey!, a non-fiction book of
investigative journalism. He received a master's
degree from Columbia University's Graduate School
of Journalism.
(Copyright 2005 Richard
S Ehrlich.) |
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