Overlooking Pakistan's Nuclear Weapons, US Considers Selling 8 F-16 Jets

The US is preparing to sell eight new f-16 fighter jets to Pakistan despite Islamabad admitting a day ago that it has small tactical nuclear weapons aimed at India.

The sale plans, not yet made official by Washington come despite persistent concerns about Pakistan’s ties with Taliban and quickly expanding nuclear arsenal, various media reported today.

The new fighters could be the F 16V revealed recently which US is offering to Indonesia. It comes with an eletronically scanned array radar, perhaps to counter the impending purchase of Dassault Rafale fighters by India which come with a similarly advanced radar.

The new fighters increase the Pakistan’s fighter jets’ force, which already has more than 70 F-16 fighters and dozens of French as well as Chinese aircraft.

However, most of them in the US Congress are concerned that the F-16 jets are more useful to Pakistan in its long confrontation with India than for counter-terrorism operations. Hence it is still uncertain if the Congress will approve the deal.

In May this year, the US handed over 14 combat aircraft, 59 military trainer jets and 374 armoured personnel carriers to Pakistan. These weapons were earlier used by American forces in Afghanistan and Iraq.