if what you guys are saying is true.
i.e. no updated engine and no updated radar…
then the deal will simply not be funded by the Iraqi Finance Ministry and its dead in the water just like many “rip off” deals before…
L159BQ from Czech
BTR4 from Ukraine (they rejected these at port in Umm Qasr this year and cancelled the entire deal due to defects and delays!)
Mirage F1 MF2000 from france
Mi17 and W3 sokol helos from Poland
“defence solutions” upgraded T72 deal
The Iraqi Prime Minister and Minister of defence can sign as many “rip off deals” as they want (see above), but ultimately they won’t get funded since OTHER Iraqis are now very careful about being “ripped off” in arms deals especially and they are looking at weapons deals like hawks in the Iraqi parliament and media and finance ministry.
I would hope that KAI would be aware of the previous arms cancellations by Iraq and not try the same “tricks” with “ripping off the stupid arabs”… but we shall wait and see the details… if indeed they come with APG67 radar and F404 engine for $45M per airframe (a downgrade compared to the $30M FA50 for Korea / Philippines)… then the deal will simply “stall” for a few months and then die quietly, or get “repriced” or the koreans will add another 10 airframes in the deal (similar to the corruption attempts in last years’ Russian deal that was renegotiated with the price difference in weapons compensated for with additional weapons).
Despite the US selling often downgraded weapons to the Iraqis, at least they don’t try and rip us off… right now the FMS is the only “trusted” weapons supply mechanism in Iraq.
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