The Mighty Catch 22: Dogfight, Inc.
The US Administration's decision to sell F-16s to Pakistan has saved about 5,000 jobs in President George W Bush's home State, Texas, since makers of the fighter aircraft had been thinking about axing many staff till some time ago, reports said on Saturday.
Lockheed Martin Corp., the builder of the planes, had said it needed new orders for the jet before this fall, or it would have to take action to close the production line that employs about 5,000 workers in Fort Worth, Texas.
The decision to sell F-16s "is likely to be as warmly greeted in Fort Worth as it is in Karachi," the Washington Post said.
Lockheed, the nation's largest defence contractor, has produced more than 4,000 of the versatile F-16s since the late 1970s, nearly half of them for customers overseas. The Fort Worth plant delivered its last F-16 to the US Air Force last month, according to Lockheed Spokesman Tom Jurlowsky, who added that it is still building planes for the governments of Israel, Chile, Poland and the United Arab Emirates.
Lockheed and other global defence manufacturers, The Washington Post points out, depend on sales of sophisticated military weaponry to boost their profits. The company has sold F-16s to 24 countries and makes them overseas, too, in Europe, Turkey and South Korea.
The Fort Worth plant had about 5,800 workers in January 2004. By this January, it was down to about 5,000, and it was scheduled to be down to 4,000 by next January, according to Jurkowsky.
It takes about three years to build an F-16, he added, noting that the company has back orders for about 200 aircraft. "Right now, the last one would come off the line in 2008," he said.
Richard Aboulafia, an aircraft analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia, called the sale of two dozen fighters to Pakistan "a happy juxtaposition of the wants and needs" of an ally in the war on terrorism and Lockheed's troubled F-16 line. The bigger issue for Lockheed, he said, is the chance to sell another 100 or more F-16s to India.
The Washington Post said the sale of F-16s by the US to Pakistan "may cause the Indian Government to consider the American plane.
Aboulafia recalled that Lockheed's production of the popular plane was "saved" in 1992 when the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, father of the present President, announced the sale of 150 F-16 jets to Taiwan.
The cost of the plane is determined by many variables, including how many are purchased and how they are equipped, Jurkowsky said. Aboulafia estimated that an F-16 "with a full tank of gas", i.e. fully equipped, costs between $30 million and $40 million, with upgrades, spare parts and other equipment adding 150 percent more to the price tag. Despite the concerns of Indian officials about news of the sale to Pakistan, Aboulafia said, the prospect of both countries buying F-16s is a positive.
"Two countries that have F-16s have never fought a war," he said, without explaining why that is impossible.
(source:TimesOfIndia.com, Washington Post.com)
Lockheed Martin Corp., the builder of the planes, had said it needed new orders for the jet before this fall, or it would have to take action to close the production line that employs about 5,000 workers in Fort Worth, Texas.
The decision to sell F-16s "is likely to be as warmly greeted in Fort Worth as it is in Karachi," the Washington Post said.
Lockheed, the nation's largest defence contractor, has produced more than 4,000 of the versatile F-16s since the late 1970s, nearly half of them for customers overseas. The Fort Worth plant delivered its last F-16 to the US Air Force last month, according to Lockheed Spokesman Tom Jurlowsky, who added that it is still building planes for the governments of Israel, Chile, Poland and the United Arab Emirates.
Lockheed and other global defence manufacturers, The Washington Post points out, depend on sales of sophisticated military weaponry to boost their profits. The company has sold F-16s to 24 countries and makes them overseas, too, in Europe, Turkey and South Korea.
The Fort Worth plant had about 5,800 workers in January 2004. By this January, it was down to about 5,000, and it was scheduled to be down to 4,000 by next January, according to Jurkowsky.
It takes about three years to build an F-16, he added, noting that the company has back orders for about 200 aircraft. "Right now, the last one would come off the line in 2008," he said.
Richard Aboulafia, an aircraft analyst with the Teal Group in Fairfax, Virginia, called the sale of two dozen fighters to Pakistan "a happy juxtaposition of the wants and needs" of an ally in the war on terrorism and Lockheed's troubled F-16 line. The bigger issue for Lockheed, he said, is the chance to sell another 100 or more F-16s to India.
The Washington Post said the sale of F-16s by the US to Pakistan "may cause the Indian Government to consider the American plane.
Aboulafia recalled that Lockheed's production of the popular plane was "saved" in 1992 when the Administration of President George H.W. Bush, father of the present President, announced the sale of 150 F-16 jets to Taiwan.
The cost of the plane is determined by many variables, including how many are purchased and how they are equipped, Jurkowsky said. Aboulafia estimated that an F-16 "with a full tank of gas", i.e. fully equipped, costs between $30 million and $40 million, with upgrades, spare parts and other equipment adding 150 percent more to the price tag. Despite the concerns of Indian officials about news of the sale to Pakistan, Aboulafia said, the prospect of both countries buying F-16s is a positive.
"Two countries that have F-16s have never fought a war," he said, without explaining why that is impossible.
(source:TimesOfIndia.com, Washington Post.com)
posted by Shaking Shenoy at 3/31/2005 10:26:00 AM
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