Delhi is worried about the possibility of the US selling F-16 jet fighters to Pakistan, though no decision has yet been made.
It does not seem to me sufficient for the Japanese simply to assure us that F-16-related data will be protected in the same manner we stipulate in the United States.
And, in fact, a US pilot in an F-18 or F-15 would be presented with a greater challenge--by far--than anything the Iranians can present today.
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The Iraqi government has already purchased F-16s from us.
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When Mary Cummings, a former US Navy pilot, stopped flying F-18 fighter jets in 1997, there were no video links between cockpits and command centres, and even radio contact was patchy at times.
Kentucky Truck, the largest auto assembly plant in the US and the home of the Ford F-Series, ran tight over the summer to keep up with demand and from the looks of it Ford dealers will still be running short on trucks.
Austria rejected rival bids from Sweden's Saab, which was offering the Gripen, and also the F-16 from the largest US defence manufacturer, Lockheed Martin.
Moreover, the US seems to be torpedoing Israel's acquisition of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.
The move will be a major boost to Lockheed Martin, whose F-35 programme has been criticised in the US for its high cost and production delays.
The F-35 has already seen plenty of field time in the US, with more than 500 flights already in 2012, and it's set to make its way to the UK armed forces next week and the Netherlands later this year, but while the aircraft is quite familiar to the pilots tasked with flying it, the public hasn't had an opportunity to experience Lockheed's latest airborne warrior.
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In the 1950s and 1960s Acapulco was a world-famous resort that attracted celebrities such as Frank Sinatra, Elvis Presley and US President John F Kennedy, who spent his honeymoon there.
Last week's order to ground the planes - in the US air force, army and Marine Corps - marked the second time in two months planes from the F-35 range have been grounded.
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