US seeks info on Pakistan’s potential misuse of F-16s

WASHINGTON — The US is seeking more information from Pakistan on the potential misuse of American-made F-16 fighter jets by it against India in violation of the end-user agreement, the State Department has said.

The Indian Air Force on Thursday displayed parts of an Amraam beyond visual range air-to-air missile as evidence to “conclusively” prove that Pakistan deployed US-manufactured F-16 fighter jets in a dogfight in Kashmir on February 27.

Pakistan later said that no F-16 fighter jets were used and denied that one of its planes had been downed by the Indian Air Force.

“We are aware of these reports and are seeking more information,” a State Department spokesperson said when asked about report that Pakistan has violated end-user agreement with the United States in this week’s border clash with India. “Due to non-disclosure agreements in Foreign Military Sales contracts, we cannot discuss the specifics of end user-agreements contained within,” Lt-Col Kone Faulkner, a Defence Department spokesperson said.

The United States, which is the largest seller of high-tech defence equipment globally, has a strong end-user monitoring agreement, and as a matter of practice takes all allegations of misuse of defence articles very seriously.

But before making any judgement or arriving at any conclusion, it needs to establish some facts on the ground, if there has been any violation by Pakistan to the F-16 end-user agreement it signed with the United States.

Publicly available documents reveal that US has imposed nearly a dozen restriction on Pakistan related to its use of F-16.

During a Congressional hearing on July 20, 2006, John Miller, the then assistant secretary of state for political military affairs, had told lawmakers that the United States has “very carefully considered” the potential risks of the diversion of US technology and equipment”.

While the exact details of the restrictions were discussed in a closeddoor session, and thus remains classified, Miller then broadly outlined some of the restrictions, which he said were over a “dozen new and unprecedented elements” of the security plan for Pakistan. —