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Morning, "prior to delivery to Balad" suggests to me this one was delivered already. But that's not the case. 1602 / 1603 will remain (quite a while) at Tucson to train pilots and will probably only be delivered as one of the latest examples to Balad.Roel1969 wrote:
One of 8 ordered Iraqi F-16D's, prior to delivery to Balad airbase is F-16D-52-CF 1602 (FMS 12-0017).
Iraqi F-16C/D's only have 1980's- vintage weaponry:
AIM-9L Sidewinder, AIM-7M Sparrow and AGM-65 Mavericks, but no AIM-9X and AIM-120 AMRAAM.
This makes the jet usable for internal counter-insurgency operations, surveillance and air defense against lower-end
threats like Iran and Syria.
It handicaps the jet's ability to skirmish with Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other major US allies in the region.
Any idea when the next ones will be delivered?Oscar01 wrote:Morning, "prior to delivery to Balad" suggests to me this one was delivered already. But that's not the case. 1602 / 1603 will remain (quite a while) at Tucson to train pilots and will probably only be delivered as one of the latest examples to Balad.Roel1969 wrote:
One of 8 ordered Iraqi F-16D's, prior to delivery to Balad airbase is F-16D-52-CF 1602 (FMS 12-0017).
Iraqi F-16C/D's only have 1980's- vintage weaponry:
AIM-9L Sidewinder, AIM-7M Sparrow and AGM-65 Mavericks, but no AIM-9X and AIM-120 AMRAAM.
This makes the jet usable for internal counter-insurgency operations, surveillance and air defense against lower-end
threats like Iran and Syria.
It handicaps the jet's ability to skirmish with Jordan, Israel, Turkey, Saudi Arabia and other major US allies in the region.
We saw these at Tucson the other week.
Oz
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