By Cernig
Many readers will have already seen the reports yesterday that a subsiduary of mercenary firm Blackwater has purchased a fighter-bomber from Brazilian firm Embraer, leading some to suggest that the security firm was going into the "Flying Tiger" business by developing its very own armed air force.
The 314-B1 Super Tucano propeller-driven fighter � the same used by the Brazilian military � was bought for US$4.5 million and delivered to EP Aviation at the end of February, according to the Estado de S. Paulo newspaper.
The report included the plane's registration number with the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration, and the FAA Web site confirmed it is registered by EP Aviation.
It was not clear if it was Embraer's first sale of a military-style aircraft to a private company. EP Aviation has 33 planes and helicopters registered with the FAA, according to the agency's Web site, only one of which is from Embraer.
...The sale was apparently approved, the Estado report noted, by Brazil's president in a deal negotiated with the U.S. government.
The Super-Tucano, while prop-driven and so looking a bit antiquated, is not an obsolete aircraft but rather a state-of-the-art COIN platform with similiar hi-tech sensors and cockpit to the F-16. It's specifically designed to operate in Third World locations with a minimum of logistical support - thus no jet engines - and can be heavily armed.
Embraer realised the stringent requirements gave it a blueprint for a design that would be equally at home in the climatic extremes prevailing in the equatorial,subtropical and arid regions of the world. "This area, and its tough conditions, are basically the same throughout much of South America, South-East Asia and even places in the Middle East. They all need tough aircraft that don't need much support and will last," adds Goncalves.
...The armament system can handle a total of 1,500kg external loads in the form of weapons or reconnaissance pods. Internal FNH 0.5in machine guns are capable of 950 rounds a minute, while external options include a GIAT M20A1 gun capable of 650 rounds a minute or an HMP podded gun. Up to 10 115kg or five 250kg bombs can be carried, or four LM70/19 unguided rocket pods.
Primary air-to-air armament is the Brazilian MAA-1 Piranha short-range infrared guided missile, but versions of the Raytheon AIM-9 Sidewinder and equivalents can also be carried.
Iraq's Saddam-era airforce ordered an earlier version of the Tucano as a trainer and COIN (dissident-suppresion) platform and with the US government involved in the purchase it seemed a fair bet that Blackwater's aquisition was aimed at the region. But I was puzzled as to why they'd bought only one.
Then, with a rather less well-read article in the WaPo's business section, all became clear.
SAO PAULO, Brazil -- Brazilian aircraft manufacturer Embraer is participating in preliminary negotiations to sell the U.S. government eight 314-B1 Super Tucano light attack and training planes for use in Iraq, the company said Monday.
Embraer also confirmed that it sold one of the propeller-driven planes to a subsidiary of Blackwater Worldwide, the world's largest security contractor and the target of harsh criticism for its conduct in Iraq.
The plane maker is offering Washington the Super Tucano in a tender process opened by the U.S. government, according to an Embraer spokesman who declined to be named in keeping with company policy.
The real story, then, isn't that Blackwater will have its own armed air force, although matters might still end that way. The real story is that Blackwater has been handed a wink and a nod to position itself as the only capable contractor for training the pilots of the Iraqi Air Force's only planned armed squadron to date. In the first instance, Blackwater pilots will probably be the Iraqi Air Force's armed component. The mercenary firm can train its instructors in advance on their own Super Tucano and then train Iraqi pilots on the ones the US is buying for Iraq - a perfect set up for a no-bid, cost-plus contract to a Bush administration favorite.
Such a contract will also help lock Iraq into a de facto long-term basing and operating agreement with the US, no matter what is concluded in negotiations over status of forces agreements which are currently opposed by a wide spectrum of Iraqi political leaders. There are other contracts designed to lock-in the Iraqis to a long term US presence too.
The depth of U.S. involvement in Iraq and the difficulty the next president will face in pulling personnel out of the country are illustrated by a handful of new contract proposals made public in May.
The contracts call for new spending, from supplying mentors to officials with Iraq's Defense and Interior ministries to establishing a U.S.-marshal-type system to protect Iraqi courts. Contractors would provide more than 100 linguists with secret clearances and deliver food to Iraqi detainees at a new, U.S.-run prison.
The proposals reflect multiyear commitments. The mentor contract notes that the U.S. military "desires for both Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Defense to become mostly self-sufficient within two years," a time outside some proposals for U.S. combat troop withdrawal. The mentors sought would "advise, train [and] assist . . . particular Iraqi officials" who work in the Ministry of Defense, which runs the Iraqi army, or the Ministry of Interior, which runs the police and other security units.
The Bush administration clearly plans to get its long-term presence in Iraq one way or another. If the Iraqis won't agree to US government troops, they'll still be dependent on US-based contractors even more in step with the Bush administration and neocon aims for the region.
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