The Perfect Soldier: Special Operations, Commandos, and the Future of Us Warfare by James F. Dunnigan
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Dirty Little Secrets
Iran's F-16 Maintenance Nightmare
by Harold C. Hutchison<
May 26, 2006
Discussion Board on this DLS topic
The threat by Venezuelan dictator Hugo
Chavez selling 21 of Venezuela's F-16 fighters to Iran, has gained
press attention. However, this is a threat that is largely empty in
terms of potential harm to the United States.
The
F-16s in question were acquired in 1983 and 1984, and are technically
the F-16A/B Block 15 (F-16s currently in service with the US Air Force
are F-16C/D Block 50s, with the F-16E/F Block 60 being built for the
UAE). The planes in question are twenty years old – and for the F-16,
that is very old indeed. These aircraft are not equipped with the
latest radars, air-to-air missiles, or jammers. And, in the eight years
since Chavez took power, they have not been getting much in the way of
logistics thanks to the freeze in relations (upsetting the country
which makes the spare parts for your combat aircraft is not a good
idea).
That said, Chavez's threat to
sell them to Iran is meant to generate headlines, and to symbolically
hurt the United States. But this move, while it would violate various
export agreements, really will not hurt the United States militarily,
even if Iran were to get all 21 of these F-16s. The planes would be
going from a country with very limited logistical support ability for
the F-16 (Venezuela) to one with practically no ability to support
F-16A operations at all.
For instance,
none of Iran's planes currently in service use the Pratt and Whitney
F100 engine that the Venezuelan planes use. Nor does Iran have any
aircraft that use the APG-66 radar on the F-16A. Iran could use
rear-aspect Sidewinders from its F-5 force, along with 20mm cannon ammo
from its force of F-4s, but when something on the airplane breaks, Iran
will have to cannibalize, and that means that 21 F-16s will quickly
drop to a much lower figure – as past experience with Iran's force of
F-5s, F-4s, and F-14s has shown. Venezuela could send over what spare
parts and missiles (including older all-aspect AIM-9L Sidewinders), but
the missiles will have a finite shelf life. Expired missiles are
generally unhealthy for people who try to use them.
In
other words, if Chavez is able to sell the planes to Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's regime in Iran, he will have sold 21 planes which will
rapidly become a world-class maintenance and logistical headache for
their new owners. But they will not be Chavez's logistical headache,
and he can use the proceeds from the sale to, at a minimum, defray the
cost for new fighters from Russia or China.
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