On Sat, 13 Sep 2003 20:45:55 GMT, Ragnar wrote:

"phil hunt" wrote in message
...
On Fri, 12 Sep 2003 23:44:43 GMT, Matt Wiser
wrote:

72 birds were sold to Saudi and began delivery in 1995. Two dozen are
optimized
for air combat, while 48 were optimized for air-to-mud. Downtuned EW (not
good against Western gear, for example)

I wonder why SA bought them? Certainly, if I was trying to buy
something and the shop would only sell me second-rate gear, I would
say "fine, I'll take my custom to Mr Sukhoi (or Mr Mikoyan or Mr
Dassault...) down the street".

You assume the Saudis "knew" the birds were downrated. Do you know that for
sure?

Not for sure, but my recollection was that there was a big public
debate in the US govmt about whether to sell them, and selling
downgraded ones was the compromise that came out of the debate. The
Saudis must have been aware that the debate was going on.

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