Amour

The US has confirmed it hopes to use $230m of its $300m military funding to Pakistan on upgrading the country's F-16 fighter jets.
A report in the New York Times said some US Congressmen were dismayed, saying the jets did not help counter-terrorism operations.
White House spokeswoman Dana Perino confirmed the upgrade but insisted the jets were for counter-terrorism use.
The move is sure to anger Pakistan's key rival India, analysts say.
The New York Times reported that the timing of the move had caught legislators off guard.
Some believed it might be linked to the visit to Washington next week of new Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, the Times said.
Speaking later on Thursday, Ms Perino said: "The F-16s that they [Pakistan] have are used in counter-terrorism operations. We made them available to the Pakistanis and they need to be maintained."
She said Pakistan was under financial pressure because of rising food and other prices.
In 2007, US lawmakers specified that military funding to Pakistan should be for counter-terrorism or law enforcement.
The New York Times said the planes had rarely been used in counter-terror operations but quoted state department officials as saying the upgrades would enhance the jets' capacity to hit insurgents accurately.

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | US seeks boost to Pakistan F-16s

Shak killS

US perparing to deal with begging mission from Pak!

Words of Quaid

Why are these people so foolish? If the money is not required for counter-terrorism then Pakistan should have asked for diverting it to developmental purposes (such as infrastructure and technology). Instead 'upgrading' F16s simply means the money will go to Lockheed Martin to send some useless junk to Pakistan

Tariq Akhtar

Why is this f16 an unending deal? Delivery is delayed by years by which time components become obsolete and then to "update" more payments are required - by the time that gets resolved back to step 1.

And this time it's even worse. Nobody in Pak military cared, nobody in govt cared until Lockheed pushed US to get more money under some pretext or other.

Are Pak procurement guys so dumb that deals are written without timing and upgrade riders?