Chavez Says He May Send US-Made Fighter Jets to Cuba, China

Chavez Says He May Send US-Made Fighter Jets to Cuba, China
VoA
Wed, 2 Nov 2005, 13:25

" Venezuela's president says his government may give its U.S.-made fighter jets to Cuba and China, after accusing the United States of breaking an agreement to provide jet parts.

President Hugo Chavez Tuesday said the United States is refusing to sell parts to Caracas to maintain its fleet of U.S.-made F-16 fighters. Mr. Chavez said his nation can do whatever it wants with the jets - even give them to Cuba and China.

The comments were made at a ceremony announcing Venezuela's plans to launch a telecommunications satellite with China's help.

A Defense Department official speaking on condition of anonymity says there has been no communication with Caracas about giving away the jets. The official also said U.S. laws strictly govern third party transfers.

Venezuela bought two-dozen F-16 jets from the United States in the 1980s."


If china gets the F-16..will this improve the PLAA? or the F-16 are too old for any use?

it is my knowledge that the F-16 venezuela currently have are too old of any combat use to the chinese. Current models of the J-11 and Su-27 as well as the J-10 are far more advanced than the early F-16A (maybe Bs as well?). But if the chinese do aquire the F-16 it will offer some guidance for the aerospace industry in china.

In conlusion, the F-16 venezuela has will probably not interest the Chinese in a military scale, but they might be interested in procuring it as a study subject.

I wonder why he would do such a move, itz worthless in modern designs, even modern F-16s have improved, unless the F-16s are above Block 40 mark (setting my scale on the same as the F-2 for Japan), the Jian-10 is a success, and THAT thing is better than the version A due to itz avionics and design, China needed the F-16A like 15 years ago when the LAVI concept was sold to China, it woulda helped since China was just starting and would of had guidance so the first 2 proto wouldnt of crashed...

i still doubt they can be block40+

guys, i see the word "give" in their. that means chavez may send the planes to china...FOR FREE!!! in exchange for some kind of partnership or future military deals. why turn down 20 FREE f-16s? china will be able to make some spares, like iran, and keep the f-16s running, maybe improve them. then it should intimidate taiwan by holding excercises with the su-27 and f-16s, and have the su-27s win. taiwan will be scared to death

china with F-16s would give a boost to PLAAF. not from a hardware standpoint, but from tactics and strategy. there are 4000 F-16s in the world today. and several potential rivals use them, or something based on them. like japan, taiwan, india. when china get 1 free F-16 from pakistan or something, they can only take it apart and study it. but if they have 20 free F-16s, they can get top pilots to fly them and have mock battles with J-10s and su-27s just to develop better tactics against F-16s. it will still be many years before JSF comes into service for Japan and taiwan won't be getting anything new soon. so to train against actual F-16s would definitely be good for the PLAAF. of course these F-16 are not as good as the ones japan or taiwan have, but at least it sets the bar.

training against f-16s is very helpful, seeing how its become the american mig-21, and is still ver sought after.
i think venezuela and malaysia which have both been slapped by a u.s embargo would do anything for revenge.
lets see...some possibilities if china actually acquired 20 or so f-16s.
firsts step: learn how to make spares to keep em running. china should already know the layout of an f-16 from pakistan, andchina makes parts easily.
2: have inspectors and pilots examine and study the aircraft, then put them in flying condition.
3. train pilots to fly them
4. hire mikoyan or sukoi to make upgrades to the aircraft, like add a new radar or avioinics.
5. put them to good use...

in terms of studying from F-16, there probably isn't much we can do with a F-16A (B is just the two seated version). Since J-10 is based on Lavi, which is based on F-16. I personally don't see much use in them, but I guess using them to simulate combat scenarios against Taiwan isn't a bad thing.

it would be interesting to see how simulated battles turn out between F-16s and Su-27s or J-10s. although J-10 might have some roots in the F-16, it's still significantly more advanced than F-16A/B. when china does her own mock battles with F-16s, they will know exactly how to improve their tactics vs F-16s. getting info from another country like pakistan could also be missing some data that is very important. of course if china can learn to produce spare parts for it, they can keep pakistan's F-16s running too, providing a small cash flow.

PiSigma said:

it would be interesting to see how simulated battles turn out between F-16s and Su-27s or J-10s. although J-10 might have some roots in the F-16, it's still significantly more advanced than F-16A/B. when china does her own mock battles with F-16s, they will know exactly how to improve their tactics vs F-16s. getting info from another country like pakistan could also be missing some data that is very important. of course if china can learn to produce spare parts for it, they can keep pakistan's F-16s running too, providing a small cash flow.

Click to expand...

why would pakistan need china to maintain its f-16s? pak can hoard spares. however, other countriess like malaysia who have been B#$$ch slapped by a u.s embargo would need those parts. what can china do with them? if put to military use, they would be a good boost to the plaaf.

just because pakistan is in favor now doesn't mean they'll always be in favor. although the forseeable future right now is that USA will need them, but who knows in 10 or 15 years. I don't know even why malaysia can't get parts from US, haven't read any news for awhile. look at venezuela, a few years ago, it was very close to the US, but right now, they couldn't be more apart. but then again, if chavez is not president anymore, US will warm up to venezuela again.

20 F-16A/B won't help PLAAF much in terms of firepower or projection. they are already too old to be any good to the PLAAF, of course they are better than J-7s, but the extra logistics that go with it just to use them is not worth it. it's better to just keep them around for a short time to study them.