Latest news with #F16
Malay Mail
5 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
Thailand goes Nordic for new fighter jets, drops Uncle Sam's F-16s amid tariff trouble
BANGKOK, June 4 — Thailand on Wednesday announced plans to buy four Gripen fighter jets in a US$500 million deal, choosing the Swedish-made planes over American F-16s as it renews its air combat fleet. The Gripen E/F models, made by Nordic industrial giant Saab, will replace the Royal Thai Air Force's older F-16 A/B jets bought in the 1980s. The announcement is the first phase of a 10-year plan to buy 12 fighter aircraft as Thailand updates its air power. 'This is an important project to strengthen our force to protect our sovereignty,' Air Force Chief Punpakdee Pattanakul told reporters. The procurement order will go to the Thai cabinet for approval around mid-July, and is expected to be finalised by the end of August. A procurement committee recommended buying the Gripen rather than the F-16 last August after a 10-month process of deliberation. The kingdom already operates 11 older Gripens, as well as dozens of F-16s. The decision to favour the Swedish fighter over the American one is unlikely to help Thailand's efforts to reach a tariff deal with US President Donald Trump's administration. Thailand is hoping to negotiate some kind of reduction or relief from Trump's threatened 36 percent levy, announced as part of the president's sweeping global 'reciprocal' tariffs. — AFP
Arab News
5 hours ago
- Business
- Arab News
Pakistan says US confirmed no F-16s flown, shot down during India standoff
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan's Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar said on Wednesday the US had confirmed to Pakistani officials that no F-16 fighter jets of the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) were flown or shot down during the four-day conflict with India last month. Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting between May 7-10, which saw the use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump. In the days that followed, Indian media claimed the Indian Air Force had shot down a Pakistani F-16 fighter jet during the conflict. 'Turned out to be a lie that the F-16 they claimed of shooting down,' Dar said while addressing a press conference. 'It was proved when we approached relevant authorities in America, they confirmed in 24 hours that no F-16 was flown from Pakistan or went down.' The US has not commented on the Pakistani deputy PM's remarks. The use of F-16s in the latest conflict could have raised concerns due to the strict end-use monitoring agreements imposed by the US. In February 2025, the US had released $397 million for a program aimed at ensuring that Pakistan's F-16s were used exclusively for counterterrorism operations and not against other nations, particularly India. The funds will support the Technical Security Team (TST), a group of contractors stationed in Pakistan to oversee the use of F-16s under strict end-use monitoring rules. According to Pakistan-specific defense and analysis group Quwa, TST has been present in Pakistan since 2019 when the US approved its current deployment with a $125 million support package for the PAF F-16 fleet. Pakistan in 2019 invited US officials to conduct a count of its F-16 jets after India made a similar claim of shooting down a Pakistani F-16 during a dogfight in the skies that year. According to a Foreign Policy magazine report, the officials had said that all F-16s were present and accounted for. In 2022, the US government had notified Congress of a proposed $450 million foreign military sale to Pakistan to support the sustainment of the PAF's F-16 program. Tensions between Pakistan and India remain high after the two countries agreed to a ceasefire on May 10. Both sides accuse each other of supporting militancy across their respective borders, allegations both governments deny.
Bloomberg
7 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Thailand to Buy 12 Swedish Gripen Fighters in Modernization Push
The Royal Thai Air Force plans to acquire 12 Swedish-made Gripen fighter jets as part of a broader plan to modernize its military. The air force announced Wednesday it has chosen the Gripen E/F jets from maker Saab AB to replace its aging fleet of US-made F-16s, with the acquisition to occur over three phases in a 10-year period.
Russia Today
a day ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ukrainian Air Force admits modern Russian jets trump F-16s
Ukraine's Western-supplied F-16 fighter jets are outmatched by Russia's newer aircraft and missile systems, the head of the Communications Department of the Ukrainian Air Force, Yury Ignat, has said. Washington gave its NATO allies the green light to send their surplus US-made jets to Ukraine in 2023. 'We are getting Western equipment, we are getting aircraft. Today, we have F16s, we already have Mirages,' he said in an interview with the outlet Ukrainian Pravda published on Tuesday. 'They have already been in use. We understand that they are not the newest.' Ignat stressed the importance of the detection range of the jets' radar, and the strike range of its weapons. 'Unfortunately, Russia has planes today that see further, and missiles that shoot further. Even compared now with the F-16,' he said. Ukraine's older Soviet-era jets such as the MiG-29 and Su-27 are 'no comparison at all,' he added. 'It's like pitting a Makarov pistol against a sniper rifle.' The current modifications of the F-16 that Ukraine has 'cannot compete one-on-one in an air battle' with the newer Russian Su-35 multirole fighter, Ignat said in March. The total number of F-16s given to Kiev has not been released, but it is believed that Ukraine was given 18 last year. Three of the jets have been destroyed, Ignat has confirmed. Last month, Ignat admitted that US-designed Patriot air defense systems have also been struggling against Russian weapons. Russian Iskander cruise missiles 'perform evasive maneuvers' and drop decoy flares in their final approach phase, 'thwarting the Patriot's trajectory calculations,' he told Le Monde. Russia has repeatedly condemned the supplies of Western armaments to Kiev, stressing that they will not change the course of the conflict, and slammed F-16 deliveries as an escalation. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that if jets taking part in the conflict take off from air bases outside Ukraine, Moscow would consider those bases to be hostile.
Russia Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- Russia Today
Ukraine plugs its Western-made weapons into ‘NATO Wi-Fi'
Kiev has been allowed to join a NATO-standard coordination network which connects together Western-made military hardware, Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Katerina Chernohorenko has announced. The system, in particular, is compatible with F-16s and Mirage 2000 fighter jets. On Saturday, Chernohorenko revealed that Ukraine had signed a license agreement to begin using the Command and Control Center System Interface (CSI), a non-commercial digital platform employed by most NATO member states for air and missile coordination and improved interoperability. The official pointed out that the system operates through NATO's Link-16 data protocol – which she referred to as 'military Wi-Fi.' She added that the protocol facilitates coordination between fighter jets such as US-made F-16s and French-made Mirage 2000s, as well as air defense systems like the Patriot, all of which have been supplied to Ukraine as military aid. Ukraine received its first F-16s from its European backers last summer, although the process had been slower than expected due to logistics and pilot training issues. While some officials in Kiev initially hoped it would become a 'game changer' on the battlefield, the military later acknowledged it could not rival the most advanced Russian jets. In total, Kiev was promised more than 80 F-16s, many of which are expected to arrive in the years to come. Since the start of deliveries, at least three Ukrainian-operated F-16s have been confirmed destroyed. As for the French-made Mirage 2000s, which are capable of carrying long-range Scalp/Storm Shadow missiles, Ukraine only received the first batch this winter, with the number of planes to be delivered estimated at six. Kiev has confirmed their deployment in combat, but reported no losses. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Ukrainian-operated F-16s will 'burn' just like other Western-supplied equipment. Moscow has also consistently denounced Western military aid to Kiev, arguing it will only prolong the conflict without changing its outcome.
