US to boost Pak F-16s fleet

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration Thursday confirmed its plans to shift nearly $230 million in aid to Pakistan from counter-terrorism programmes to upgrading the country’s aging F-16 attack planes, a move that is certain to face some resistance in Congress.
“The F-16s that they have are used in counterterrorism operations,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. “We made them available to the Pakistanis and they need to be maintained.”
She confirmed a New York Times report that the administration planned to shift nearly $230 million in aid to Pakistan to upgrade its aging F-16 planes, built by Lockheed Martin Corp. “That story is accurate,” Ms Perino said.
The new Pakistani government is facing economic pressures partly from rising food and energy prices and needs assistance from the United States, she said.
The United States has been making efforts to forge ties with new Pakistani leaders and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani is scheduled to meet President George W Bush at the White House next week.
The timing of the action, The Times said, also caught lawmakers off guard, prompting some of them to suspect that the deal was meant to curry favour with Gilani.
US lawmakers have previously limited military aid to Pakistan to counterterrorism and law enforcement activities against al Qaeda and the Taliban. But The Times claimed that Pakistan has rarely used its F-16s in counterterrorism missions.
In a two-page notification to Congress, the State Department said that upgrading the avionics, electronics and radar systems of Pakistan’s older F-16s would ‘increase the survivability of the aircraft in a hostile environment’ and make the ‘F-16s a more valuable counter-terrorism asset that operates safely during day and night operations’.