The TOI correspondent from Washinton: Amid strained ties with New Delhi, the Trump administration has notified Congress of a $686 million sustainment and modernisation bundle for Pakistan’s getting old F-16 fighter jet fleet simply weeks after Islamabad’s high-profile lobbying blitz secured hotter ties with the White Home.The Protection Safety Cooperation Company (DSCA) transmitted the proposal to US lawmakers earlier this week, kicking off a 30-day congressional assessment interval. Of the overall worth, $649 million funds gadgets corresponding to avionics upgrades, cryptographic modules like AN/APX-126 Identification Buddy or Foe techniques, mission-planning software program, spare elements, simulators, coaching, and logistical help from contractors corresponding to Lockheed Martin in Fort Price, Texas.
About $37 million covers protection gear, together with 92 Hyperlink-16 tactical information hyperlink techniques for safe, real-time battlefield information sharing with US and NATO forces, plus six inert Mk-82 500-pound bomb our bodies for integration testing.DSCA justifies the sale as very important to US nationwide safety, enabling Pakistan—a Main Non-NATO Ally—to maintain interoperability in counterterrorism operations and joint workout routines. The upgrades goal Block 52 and Mid-Life Replace F-16 variants, addressing “important flight security issues” and increasing their service life by means of 2040. Officers stress the bundle provides no new offensive capabilities or US personnel on Pakistani soil, insisting it “is not going to alter the essential army stability within the area”—a pro-forma nod to Indian sensitivities.This marks the newest in a string of F-16 offers relationship to post-9/11 counter-insurgency efforts. In 2016, the US offered eight Block 52A/B jets for $665 million (later amended to $699 million), together with radars and spares. Earlier, 2006’s “Peace Drive I” delivered 18 F-16C/D plane with AIM-120C missiles for $890 million, whereas a 2010 sustainment bundle value $78.6 million. The 2025 notification builds on February’s $400 million improve and October’s AMRAAM missile provide, signaling regular US dedication regardless of previous frictions, together with from Pakistan being a breeding floor for a scores of terrorists from Osama bin Laden to Khalid Shaikh Mohammed. The timing amplifies Indian issues, coming amid President Donald Trump’s seen pivot towards Islamabad this yr. Since his January inauguration, Trump has hosted Military Chief Gen. Asim Munir twice—on the White Home in June and September—and met Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif 3 times this yr. Trump has lavished reward on Sharif as a “good man” and can be in obvious awe of the title “Area Marshal” which he retains repeating like a pet mantra.Analysts say Pakistan’s aggressive diplomacy, together with hiring Trump’s former enterprise companions and bodyguard as lobbyists, cryptocurrency offers together with his household and buddies, and guarantees to provide uncommon earth ores, has flipped US coverage. Whereas this netted Pakistan favorable tariff therapy, the F-16 nod follows Trump’s imposition of heavy tariffs on Indian items, exacerbating bilateral strains. New Delhi has maintained official silence on the matter.Trump’s $ 686 million bundle got here even because the Republican majority US Congress, rendered supine and toothless within the face of White Home assertion of govt authority, wheeled out acquainted strains about U.S-India ties being the “defining relationship of the twenty first century” which is essential for a “free, open, and safe Indo-Pacific” at a listening to of the Home Overseas Relations Committee on Thursday. By most accounts, together with testimony by three specialists – Jeff Smith, Dhruva Jaishankar, and Sameer Lalwani – who spoke earlier than the panel, the Trump administration has fallen wanting nurturing US-India ties in its second time period.