the offers I have seen said Mirage F-1 MF2000 18 airframes 1 billion dollars F-16 3 billion dollars for 18 airframes and yes the F-16’s are new but but they are not the same price they are 3 times the price 🙂

18 F16s were $1.1Bn including radars, some armaments and ground support equipment (excluding training and maintenance contract). all in including maintenance, training, sniper pods, recon pods, simulators etc… its about $1.4Bn for the first 18 planes.

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/iraq-seeks-f-16-fighters-05057/

the french did offer the MF2000 version. but they were the same price as brand new F16IQ… so the Iraqis declined.

I disagree… Saddam was terrified from STARTING the war himself… he was hoping to bluff his way out of it, or at least withdraw whilst “saving face” in front of his “audience” (the arab masses mostly). The 6 weeks war was enough for him to withdraw saying “Iraq was completely destroyed economically and militarily”… which it was, all so he can save face.

If he had “started” an attack on the US he presumed it would have ended with nukes over every Iraqi city (the war coincided with the end of the Soviet-Iraqi treaty of friendship). That was the reaction that he expected (and not a few of the Iraqi General Staff too)… he was not about to embark upon a new “pearl harbour”!!! 😀 I mean using the example of Israel 1967 is a non-starter isn’t it… as they were attacking non-nuclear countries! I wonder if Israel would ever try that sort of trick against the US? Thought not…

I think a more interesting “what if” scenario would involve a coallition of all the countries EXCEPT the US vs Iraq in 1991.

I’d bet if the US cleared the sale of AMRAAMs to Iraq or Egypt they’d pounce on it.

gripen is good for countries that aren’t surrounded by powerful enemies but still want the “prestige” and “reserve power” of operating a modern fast jet basically. hence the popularity in places like Hungary / Czech / South Africa… and maybe in future other smaller NATO members / East European states.

IMHO it would be a good plane for a country like Bangladesh or Nigeria or latin american states. But in “hot zones” of the middle east, northeast asia etc… its of little utility vs large more established forces.

of course they could have done better in hindsight… but all they could have achieved ultimately is some tactical successes and lengthening the war by a few days to a week at most (shoot down a few more allied fighters and maybe some small scale “suicide air raids” into saudi arabia / gulf waters with limited impact)… it would have been completely irrelevant in the grand scheme of things. whether they were “israeli” or “iraqi” would not have mattered much.