RCGA: F-15 deal worth $2.9B a year to local economy. Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/business/local/rcga-f--deal-worth-b-a-year-to-local/article_4

[MyLittlePony 340]

St. Louis and national Boeing officials joined the White House Thursday in hailing a $30 billion arms deal with Saudi Arabia that promises job security through at least 2020 to about 2,000 Boeing production workers here.

"This is a wonderful New Years' present for the St. Louis economy that will guarantee thousands of jobs for many years in the future," said Loren Thompson, chief executive officer with the Lexington Institute, a defense and security consultancy based in Northern Virginia.

The agreement calls for Boeing to build 84 new F-15 fighter jets in addition to upgrading five dozen F-15s the company delivered to the Saudi Arabia government in a 1992 transaction worth $9 billion.

Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space and Security said the company anticipated the conclusion of months of delicate negotiations between U.S. and Saudi officials and has been preparing its Hazelwood production line accordingly.

Boeing hopes to start filling the Saudi orders in 2015.

A deal that will keep an estimated 60,000 people employed across the nation likely will not create any new jobs in St. Louis.

"It will sustain the numbers that are here," said Tom Pinski, spokesman for District 837 representing the St. Louis-based members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers.

Nor does the outside supplier of the primary F-15 components expect his firm to ramp up hiring in the wake of the agreement.

"This will not add jobs, but it will maintain existing jobs," said Kevin L. Cummings, the president and chief executive officer of GKN Aerospace, with a payroll of 1,300 employees.

The White House announced it had finalized the transaction late Thursday morning from Hawaii, where President Obama is on a holiday vacation with his family.

"This agreement will positively impact the U.S. economy and further advances the president's commitment to create jobs by increasing exports," deputy White House press secretary Josh Earnest said in a statement released to national news organizations.

Analysts said final negotiations in the pact, initially announced 15 months ago, were slowed by the political turmoil spawned by the Arab Spring, the death of the heir to the Saudi throne and ongoing tensions with Iran - a Saudi enemy.

Muilenburg said there was no connection between the timing of the announcement and the Iranian threat this week to block Persian Gulf oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz.

Iran posed the threat after the U.S. and other nations indicated increased economic sanctions might be necessary to slow the expansion of Iran's nuclear capabilities.

Boeing has sought to stay out of the geopolitical fray and focus on the prospect of building and selling more fighter planes.

"This is a government-to-government arrangement, and that is the way we support it," said Muilenburg. "We really don't delve into the political dimensions."

Thompson said the negotiations demonstrate the fine line the U.S. is forced to tread in the effort to balance regional security among Middle East nations.

"The sale of F-15 was carefully constructed by the United States government to create a potent deterrent to Iranian aggression without posing a huge threat to Israel," Thompson said. "(The F-15) has middle-range fighter capabilities. It is not a fully stealthy joint striker. But it is far superior to anything Iran has."

For Boeing, the deal represents another step in broadening foreign sales to offset cuts in U.S. defense spending.

The overseas market is "an important part of our strategy," said Muilenburg. Foreign sales accounted for only seven percent of the company's business five years ago, the CEO added.

In 2010, foreign transactions jumped to 18 percent. Muilenburg said the long-term objective is for non-U.S. customers to account for 25-30 percent of the company's production.

Obtaining that goal may well mean pursuing future F-15 sales to other foreign governments, said Richard Aboulafia, a defense and security analyst with the Teal Group, also headquartered in Northern Virginia.

Aboulafia pointed out that the F-15 has "already survived on foreign sales longer than any other jet fighter. And now it looks like it will survive for the rest of the decade as well. That's a pretty amazing achievement."

Rep. Todd Akin said criticism of a deal to send American war machines to a monarchy -- one that not only supports an economic boycott of Israel but also produced 15 of the terrorists that hijacked U.S. commercial jets on September 11, 2001 -- does not take several mitigating factors into account.

A member of the House Armed Services Committee, the Missouri Republican said the engines propelling the F-15s purchased by Saudi Arabia may not be as powerful as those used on aircraft flown by U.S. military personnel.

There's a good chance the range of the jets, as well as the infrared sensors, radar and other components, have also been adjusted down, Akin added.

"One F-15 is not the same as another F-15," he said.

Akin was one of several area lawmakers offering bipartisan support for a deal which will, at least for the time being, help stem the flow of manufacturing jobs from the region.

In the same vein, Muilenburg said the transaction reinforces Boeing's commitment to the region.

"One of the key elements of this is our employment base in St. Louis as well," the Boeing executive said. "This is an opportunity to sustain current employment levels and that also presents the opportunity to invest in the future."

Read more: http://www.stltoday.com/business/saudi-deal-offers-security-for-thousands-of-local-boeing-workers/article_4a6441ea-326f-11e1-b26c-001a4bcf6878.html#ixzz1i4qc8taS

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

American jobs and American exports. Nice.

[MyLittlePony 340]

30 plus years and the F-15 still kicks ####.

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

30 plus years and the F-15 still kicks ####.

That's what this country needs more of: good products that we can sell overseas.

[Pooky 3,786]

The F-15SA is a 2-seat Strike Eagle equivalent.

So who is the USA setting the Saudis up to bomb?

[Mr. Big Dog 10,747]

The F-15SA is a 2-seat Strike Eagle equivalent.

So who is the USA setting the Saudis up to bomb?

Why does it have to be a set-up? The Saudis want the fighter jets. They can buy it from Boeing or they can buy it from EADS, BAE and Alenia. They'll get their jets either way because they've got the moolah to pay for them. So you sell them a watered down version of your jet and you make the bucks, have the jobs and you know what they've got.

[Pooky 3,786]

Why does it have to be a set-up? The Saudis want the fighter jets. They can buy it from Boeing or they can buy it from EADS, BAE and Alenia. They'll get their jets either way because they've got the moolah to pay for them. So you sell them a watered down version of your jet and you make the bucks, have the jobs and you know what they've got.

With AESA, C7 AMRAAM variants and 9X Sidewinders, these aren't watered down. The USAF is slowly retrofitting AESA to their F-15s and it affords a step-change in detection capability over mechanically scanned radar units.

No, these are top line F-15s that Saudi is getting.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

The F-15SA is a 2-seat Strike Eagle equivalent.

So who is the USA setting the Saudis up to bomb?

Iran has almost as many fighter aircraft as the Saudi's from just from what the Iraqis abandoned in the Persian Desert.

[Pooky 3,786]

Why does it have to be a set-up? The Saudis want the fighter jets. They can buy it from Boeing or they can buy it from EADS, BAE and Alenia. They'll get their jets either way because they've got the moolah to pay for them. So you sell them a watered down version of your jet and you make the bucks, have the jobs and you know what they've got.

With AESA, C7 AMRAAM variants and 9X Sidewinders, these aren't watered down. The USAF is slowly retrofitting AESA to their F-15s and it affords a step-change in detection capability over mechanically scanned radar units.

No, these are top line F-15s that Saudi is getting.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Wow! I slipped in between Pooky's double post!

[Pooky 3,786]

Iran has almost as many fighter aircraft as the Saudi's from just from what the Iraqis abandoned in the Persian Desert.

Numbers mean little here. Iran has F-14 Tomcats (without any operational Phoenix missiles), F-4 Phantoms, F-5 Tigers and MiG-29s flown there by the Iraqis.

Saudi has F-15C and Eurofighter Typhoon air-to-air assets, which would decimate the Iranian air force in an aerial fight. Even the F-15SAs have a decent A2A capability, so that wouldn't be a fair fight. Not even close.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Iran has almost as many fighter aircraft as the Saudi's from just from what the Iraqis abandoned in the Persian Desert.

Not that it matters,

On 05 August 2007 Lieutenant-General Kamal al-Barzanji, Iraq's air force commander, said he hoped Iran would return some of the Iraqi warplanes that fled to Iran ahead of the Gulf War in 1991. He conceded that many of them were probably beyond repair.

[I AM NOT THAT GUY 5,715]

Numbers mean little here. Iran has F-14 Tomcats (without any operational Phoenix missiles), F-4 Phantoms, F-5 Tigers and MiG-29s flown there by the Iraqis.

Saudi has F-15C and Eurofighter Typhoon air-to-air assets, which would decimate the Iranian air force in an aerial fight. Even the F-15SAs have a decent A2A capability, so that wouldn't be a fair fight. Not even close.

With the onset of Desert Storm in 1991, reports suggested that more than 350 advanced aircraft were bought or made operational including, Russian Mig-27s, -29s, -31s, Tu-22M3 Backfires, Russian Su-24s, -25s, -27s, Il-76 transports, and French Mirage F-1s. Iran purchased a number of Mig-29s (Mig-29A and Mig-29UB trainers) from what was then the Soviet Union, and aquired a number of others impounded after fleeing Iraq during Desert Storm. Su-24MKs, SU-25Ks, and a number of Il-76 were aquired in the same way.

At least 115 combat aircraft flew to Iran from Iraq during Desert Storm, out of the total of 137-149 aircraft flown to Iran or crashed enroute, including military transports and commerical airliners. According to an official Iraqi statement, the combat aircraft included 24 Mirage F-1s, 4 Su-20 Fitters, 40 Su-22 Fitters, 24 Su-24 Fencers, seven Su-25 Frogfoots, nine Mig-23 Floggers, and four Mig-29 Fulcrums. Reports that Saddam Hussein ordered 20 Tu-22 bombers to Iran appeared unfounded. The reported orders in 1992 for Mig-27, -31, Su-22, and Tu-22M aircraft were either in error or failed to come to fruition as those aircraft types did not subsequently appear in Iranian inventory. In this period close to $2 billion was reportedly spent on foreign weapons systems.

In 1993 it was reported that Russia was to provide Iran with spare parts, armaments, and operating manuals for the Iraqi jets that flew to Iran during the Gulf War. In 1993 it was also reported that China had bought an unknown number of these Mig-29s from Iran, in exchange for Chinese missile technology and a nuclear power station. The two countries had reportedly reached agreement on the exchange in late 1992, with Iran having delivered some of the Mig-29s by the end of 1992.

In 1998 Iraq and Iran had high-level meetings to discuss ending their state of war and other matters, including Iraq's request to have its airplanes returned. Iran denied it had used any of the Iraqi fighter planes. If Iran had kept the Iraqi planes grounded for the entire time, they were probably nonfunctional. It was also possible that the Iranians might not have been able to start the engines or operate the hydraulics. Other reports suggested that some Su-24s were added to Iran's existing inventory, some Su-20/22s were in Revolutionary Guard service. The Iraqi Su-25s, Mig-23s and Mirage F-1s were thought by some to be not in service, due to age, low capability (Mig-23s) or too few numbers (Su-25). Other reports suggested that Iran had overhauled Iraq's fleet of 24 Mirage F-1EQ fighters and placed them into service. By 2000 reports emerged suggesting that Iran had in fact not incorporated the Mig-23 or Su-20/22 aircraft (at least into their regular Air Force), but had taken the Iraqi Su-24MK, Su-25K, and Mirage F-1EQ aircraft into inventory.

[MyLittlePony 340]

The Saudis have so much money they ought to buy some F-22 to keep the production lines open the F-22 is no more.

[Pooky 3,786]

The Saudis have so much money they ought to buy some F-22 to keep the production lines open the F-22 is no more.

Export of the F-22 was banned by Congress.