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Post by Gene on Sept 29, 2011 2:41:27 GMT 9
Iraq Joins F-16 Club: Iraq's government signed an agreement with the United States to acquire 18 Lockheed Martin-built F-16 Block 52 fighters to re-equip its air force, reported Reuters. A Lockheed representative told the Daily Report Tuesday that the company "is pleased by the announcement" and welcomes Iraq "as the 26th nation to operate the F-16." Iraq renewed its bid to acquire as many as 36 Viper Block 52s last month, after tabling a deal back in February due to budgetary constraints. Maj. Gen. Russell Handy, senior USAF representative in Iraq, told reporters earlier this month that the Iraqis planned to purchase a "complete package," which "includes training." The initial cadre of Iraqi pilots already is undergoing training in the United States, but the first F-16 is not expected to arrive in Iraq until late 2013 at the earliest, he said. The Pentagon notified Congress of the possible foreign military sale of the F-16s and associated hardware one year ago. The FMS deal could be worth as much as $4.2 billion. (Handy transcript)
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Post by steve201 (deceased) on Sept 29, 2011 6:04:19 GMT 9
oh brother...here we go again.....I once met an instructor pilot that was assigned to train some of the irani pilots under the shah of iran....(same mind set as iraqi's)....while his student was on final approach in a T38...he had the wings level...the plane dirty....and the throttle setting to light speed...the trainer kept telling him to slow down..get your nose up....slow down..get your nose up....finally he grabbed control of the plane and yanked the plane out of the pattern to "Discuss" the approach....the iranian pilot said under no certain terms he didn't appreciate the trainer taking control of the airplane the way he did....the trainer asked him why he was so hot and ready to die.......the iranian pilot told him he wasn't afraid to die!!!...the trainer told him "Well..I am and that's why I took the airplane from you!!!"....
according to the trainer...they were just about all that way...not afraid to die!!....gonna be alot of those brand new falcons busted up in the desert resembling lawn darts is my prediction........
Steve
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Post by Mark O on Sept 29, 2011 6:37:13 GMT 9
Yet we won't sell any new ones to Taiwan. Hmmm?
I always like to think what if the production lines we opened up in say, 1940 stayed open as long as the F-16 line. The last P-51s would have rolled off the line in ... 1980? ... give or take a year or two? Even better, how about the DC-3 line staying open as long as the 737 line?!! The last one would have rolled off around the same time as my mythical P-51!
I know, it's silly, but it does put some perspective on how long we've had our front-line fighters.
Mark
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MOW
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Post by MOW on Sept 29, 2011 7:23:20 GMT 9
Yea, the Taiwan thing is a China political thing... more BS is all.
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Post by Jim on Sept 29, 2011 7:23:22 GMT 9
oh brother...here we go again.....I once met an instructor pilot that was assigned to train some of the irani pilots under the sha of iran....(same mind set as iraqi's)....while his student was on final approach in a T38...he had the wings level...the plane dirty....and the throttle setting to light speed...the trainer kept telling him to slow down..get your nose up....slow down..get your nose up....finally he grabbed control of the plane and yanked the plane out of the pattern to "Discuss" the approach....the iranian pilot said under no certain terms he didn't appreciate the trainer taking control of the airplane the way he did....the trainer asked him why he was so hot and ready to die.......the iranian pilot told him he wasn't afraid to die!!!...the trainer told him "Well..I am and that's why I took the airplane from you!!!".... according to the trainer...they were just about all that way...not afraid to die!!....gonna be alot of those brand new falcons busted up in the desert resembling lawn darts is my prediction........ Steve I have said this before in here.... Steve is right, while I was at Willie, the Iranians were the same (the Shah was still in charge), there were several instances of near crashes with some IPs looking for Viet Nam assignments to get away from these people.... And when they transitioned to the F-5 (we had the foreign student pilot training at Willie instead of at Luke because of the commonality with the 38) they didn't like the dogfighting.... Training technicians was equally nerve wracking.. The machinists learning to grind and polish hyd actuating cylinders/pistons back to specs after hard surface chrome plating drove me nuts because they would ruin as many as they made serviceable... Getting their welders certified at Hill AFB was another fiasco- the evaluators at Hill knew everybody's style at Willie , we would send their samples off done by one of our GIs or civilian welders and the report came back telling us that Mohamed's sample was really done by SSgt Jones... The civilian that run the plating shop finally retired rather than work with anymore "towel heads and camel jockys".. They would completely ignore any and and all safety rules with plating chemicals-one of which was cynanide... I remembered what my CO in MAAG in Korea had told me about his experience with them- he had wanted the State Deptment to quit training their mechs and make them use contract maintenance so that in the event of a coup, they might get only one or 2 missions off- He lost and so did the Shah...... Iraq will be no different- they all ride basically the same camel... Where will they get the money to pay Lockheed? From we taxpayers??? "bout time we began getting the oil that the Dumbocrats say we are fighting for - at 50.00 a barrel.........
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