HTTP://WWW.STOPNATO.ORG.UK --------------------------- ["In uncommonly blunt terms for a U.S. official
-- and in what could be construed as a rare swipe at Britain, Washington's No. 1
ally in its declared global war on terrorism -- Walters has all but accused
unnamed European governments of dangling the prospect of early European Union
membership to clinch the Gripen sales to Hungary and the Czechs.
"Certain countries were able to play the EU membership card very skillfully," he told the trade paper Defense Daily late last month, speaking of the missed opportunity for U.S. fighters. Both Sweden and Britain are EU members". Of course, the report doesn't explain why would
these countries ever need such weaponry. It's sad to see how they waste their
money to pay for [broken] promises. Keep on dreaming on an empty stomach...
]
Pentagon plays Afghan card to sell U.S. warplanes By Jim Wolf WASHINGTON, Jan 4 (Reuters) - After losing bids to supply warplanes to two of NATO's newest members, the Pentagon played its Afghanistan card on Friday, reminding shoppers -- including Poland and South Korea -- of the job U.S. aircraft have been doing there and urging them to buy American. "For the fourth time in 11 years, American air power is proving to be decisive in combat," said Air Force Lt. Gen. Tome Walters, director of the Pentagon agency that runs government-to-government arms sales. Before Afghanistan, U.S. warplanes and their increasingly effective precision-guided bombs and missiles were widely regarded as having proven themselves in Kosovo, Bosnia and the Gulf War since 1991. "The first question any nation should be asking is how do we link up as tightly as we can with American air power," Walters added in remarks released by his Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The statement reflected a continuing U.S. effort to burnish military-to-military relationships with friends and allies for future coalition war fighting as well as an ongoing drive to make sure that NATO warplanes can operate together without hitches. But it also reflected U.S. disappointment at decisions by the Czech Republic and Hungary to buy the swing-wing JAS-39 Gripen fighter made by Saab of Sweden and Britain's BAE Systems (LSE: BA.L - news) over lease offers of used Lockheed Martin Corp. F-16s. In uncommonly blunt terms for a U.S. official -- and in what could be construed as a rare swipe at Britain, Washington's No. 1 ally in its declared global war on terrorism -- Walters has all but accused unnamed European governments of dangling the prospect of early European Union membership to clinch the Gripen sales to Hungary and the Czechs. "Certain countries were able to play the EU membership card very skillfully," he told the trade paper Defense Daily late last month, speaking of the missed opportunity for U.S. fighters. Both Sweden and Britain are EU members. PROVEN VERSUS PROJECTED CAPABILITY In highlighting the performance of U.S. air power in Afghanistan, Walters had his eye on a clutch of other aircraft modernization competitions under way worldwide, including in South Korea, Poland, Austria and Brazil. Poland, a third new NATO member, is planning to pick among new F-16s, Gripens or the Mirage 2000 built by France's Dassault Aviation SA to replace aging Soviet-era MiG fighters -- a 60-fighter deal valued in the billions of dollars. In South Korea, Boeing Co. is competing to sell its F-15K -- a variant of the F-15E being flown over Afghanistan -- against Dassault's Rafale, Russia's Sukhoi 35 and the Eurofighter, a joint venture of BAE, Franco-German EADS and Finmeccanica SpA of Italy. By buying American, friends and allies could tap into the range of high-tech military know-how used in the Afghan campaign, launched in response to the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, said David Des Roches, a spokesman for Walters. "Basically, what we're arguing is (we) have a proven capability versus a projected capability" of foreign systems untested in battle, he said. Exports of U.S. fighters and fighter-bombers dropped to $200 million last year from $1.3 billion in 2000 and $2.5 billion in both 1999 and 1998, when a post-Gulf War order boom peaked, according to the Aerospace Industries Association, a Washington-based trade group. John Douglass, the association president and a member of a congressionally mandated commission on the future of the U.S. aerospace industry, said warming U.S. ties to India and Pakistan, a key ally in the Afghan campaign, may result in new export markets for U.S. military technology there and elsewhere. "They knew all along how good we were," he said, referring to what he called a widely acknowledged U.S. lead of 10 to 15 years in military technology. "The more you demonstrate it, the more it sinks in." ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: archive@jab.org EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://TOPICA.COM/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================ |
