Every time a S. American country that we have relations with buys aircraft from Russia or Europe we're losing points. Effective military to military relations should have them lusting, wanting, begging to buy US equipment. If partnership missions can't even accomplish that small feat then the very reason for partnership missions should be called into question.
Our equipment is too expensive for them to justify the expense. Why buy a small fleet of American helicopters when they could buy one from the Russians that is twice the size?
ReplyDeleteThen there is the complexity of maintaining it.
Plus, they see how we cut off spares to Pakistani and Venezuelan F-16s which makes them leery of being dependent upon us for spares, software upgrades, weapons, etc.
The Russians are notorious for poor spares and support service to customers, but they don't give a damn what you do with it once you've paid for the gear.
Our stuff has a lot of strings attached to it.
FMS subsidizing the purchase of US gear. it also takes care of support and parts.
DeletePakistan and Venezuela both are bad actors. these guys and the other people that we have partnership missions with aren't. as a matter of fact we're trying to get them even more into our sphere of influence.
price isn't a problem. them turning on us really isn't a problem. its a lack of pushing gear i guess or maybe a stale state dept. but something has got to change.
Pakistan and Venezuela might now be considered bad actors, but they were at one time firmly ensconced within our sphere of influence, but countries see that if you piss-off the US, you lose support, spares and weapons. If you have invested billions in your air force and you can't get Sidewinders or new engines because you are no longer on the US secret santa list, you might regret that choice further down the road.
ReplyDeleteIt's why the Saudis bought Tornados in the 80s/90s and are buying Typhoons instead of just buying another 80 F-15SA.
It's why the Brazilians are favoring the Rafale over the SuperHornet.
And price is a consideration. Look at the cost of Mi-17s versus CH-47s. If your defense budget is less than $5 billion a year, e.g. Vietnam, then buying 3 Mi-17s for the cost of 2 Chinooks is a no-brainer
With that said, however, there is room for improvement in the FMS program.