By IRNA,
Islamabad : Pakistan will get eight F-16 fighter jets from the United States in two months, local TV channels reported on Wednesday.
The Congress approved delivery of 10 aircraft to Pakistan and the two aircraft will be delivered later, TV channels reported.
The United States government had delivered two F-16 fighter aircraft in July, 2007, to the Pakistan Air Force, which is part of a $5 billion weapons deal with Pakistan.
These aircraft will join the Pakistan Air Force’s current inventory of 36 F-16 fighters.
Delivery of 14 more F-16 fighter aircraft from the US Air Force is planned in the near future, sources said.
These aircraft are being provided by the United States to augment the 18 new F-16 aircraft purchased by the government of Pakistan in an agreement signed September 30, 2006, the sources said.
Under the package to Pakistan also include modernizing 26 used aircraft already in Pakistan’s arsenal, as well as providing logistical and other support.
Islamabad’s support for the United States in countering the so-called terrorism has apparently made its case stronger.
Pakistan has been trying for years to buy new F-16 jets.
The US Congress cancelled the sale of F-16s to Pakistan in the 1990s fearing that Islamabad would pursue its nuclear weapons program.
Pakistan acquired its F-16 fleet in the mid-1980s and had contracted to buy more.
However, the deal was blocked by a 1989 Congressional ban on arms transfer because of Pakistan’s then-covert nuclear weapons program.
The suspended sale of the aircraft, some of which Pakistan had paid for, became an irritant in bilateral relations for many years.
But the relationship warmed markedly after the September 2001 attacks amid cooperation by Pakistan in the war against terrorism, including support for the US-led invasion of Afghanistan.