The Hindu : National : IAF holds talks on F-16s with U.S. Agency

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 22, 2005

National

National

IAF holds talks on F-16s with U.S. Agency

Sandeep Dikshit

NEW DELHI: The Indian Air Force (IAF) on Thursday held its first discussions on the F-16 and F-18 planes with the head of the U.S. Defence Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA), the organisation that oversees U.S. military sales and financing programmes to foreign countries.

The U.S. team will be back to explain the main features of the aircraft to a joint delegation of the Army and the Navy, both of whom are honing their joint fighting capabilities with the IAF.

The talks spanned two hours and saw the U.S. side explaining the basic capabilities and the upgrade cycle of both aircraft, one made by Lockheed Martin and the other by a Boeing subsidiary, McDonell Douglas, said the DSCA Director and highly experienced F-16 pilot, Jeffrey B. Kohler. The IAF team was led by the IAF Deputy Chief of Staff, J. S. Gujral, himself a fighter pilot.

Asked about the U.S. Government's role in selling the fighter planes, Lt. Gen. Kohler said, "We read the request for information and felt both (F-16 and F-18) could meet the requirements. Therefore, we allowed both Boeing and Lockheed to apply for licences to talk to India. The DSCA and the U.S. Embassy will support both companies equally.''

On the vital question of continuous service support in the light of India's previous experience of U.S. sanctions, Lt. Gen. Kohler pointed out that his agency was responsible for overseeing sales of 11,000 items of defence equipment worth over $220 billion to 190 countries. "We are the largest exporters of service equipment and training. This speaks loudly for itself, otherwise the 190 countries would have been looked elsewhere.'' However, none of the countries was penalised for nuclear proliferation but sanctions were imposed on a few of them for human rights abuses and loan defaults. "We have a qualitatively different relationship as compared to 1998 (when sanctions were imposed). The stakes are much higher and I am sure both sides would take that into consideration before precipitating decisions.'' Though it was premature to talk of the type of licence production that would be agreed upon, the DSCA Director said, "Both are eager to work on industrial cooperation. I am positive regardless of whether U.S. wins, the talks will strengthen (possibilities of) industrial cooperation and build better understanding in many more areas.''

Lt. Gen Kohler said the threads of sale and joint production of F-16s and F-18s would be picked up by further delegation-level talks as during the forthcoming apex-level defence meeting and the Defence Minister, Pranab Mukherjee's visit to Washington.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

National