Special to WorldTribune.com

WASHINGTON — The United States has transferred four advanced
fighter-jets to Egypt.

The U.S. Air Force has formally relayed four F-16 Block 52 multi-role
fighters to Egypt. Officials said the transfer to the Egyptian Air Force
took place on Jan. 22 in the United States.

“The recent transfer of four F-16 Block 52 fighter jets to Egyptian
Armed Forces is troubling, and future deliveries of the remaining 16 jets scheduled to be completed by the end of 2013 should be delayed until Congress has had time to review further this foreign military sale,” Sen. James Inhofe said.

Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, had urged President Barack Obama to delay the F-16 shipment. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, Inhofe warned that the Morsi regime was cracking down on dissent.

“Under Muslim Brotherhood President Morsi, there has been constant
instability, and the systematic exclusion and silencing of all official
minority political opposition,” Inhofe said. “This has resulted in massive
street protests, and the passage of a new constitution that has been widely
criticized as lacking any protection of minority political or religious
rights.”

The State Department, however, rejected Inhofe’s request. Officials
warned of an Egyptian backlash to any suspension of the F-16 program.

“Egypt is a strategic partner with whom we have a long history of close
political-military relations that have benefited U.S. interest,” Assistant
Secretary of State David Adams said in a Jan. 8 letter to Inhofe. “For the
past 30 years the F-16 aircraft has been a key component of the relationship
between the United States military and the Egyptian Armed Forces.”

Officials said Obama ordered the Defense Department to accelerate
delivery of the F-16s amid plans to enhance strategic relations with the new
Islamist regime of President Mohammed Morsi. They said the nationwide unrest
in Egypt would not stop U.S. arms exports.

“But we’re obviously monitoring events closely in Egypt and look forward
to a continuing defense dialogue with our Egyptian counterparts,” Pentagon
spokesman George Little said.

The administration has also ordered the delivery of kits for 200 M1A1
main battle tanks for Egypt. The sources said the kits would be provided by
General Dynamics for MBT assembly in the Egyptian Tank Factory in Cairo.

The accelerated U.S. arms flow comes amid reports of Chinese missile
cooperation with Egypt. On Jan. 29, the Washington Free Beacon reported that
the U.S. intelligence community was concerned over the arrival of
technicians from the state-owned China Precision Machinery Import-Export
Corp. for missile development at Egypt’s Sakr factory, which produces Scud B
and C ballistic missiles.

“A group of technicians from China’s premier missile manufacturer that
was previously sanctioned by the U.S. government for illicit arms transfers
are working in Egypt with North Koreans to modernize Cairo’s Scud missile
force,” the Beacon said.

  David Adams, F-16 Block 52 multi-role fighters, George Little, Mohammed Morsi, Sen. James Inhofe, U.S. fast-tracking F-16 deliveries to Egypt despite mounting unrest