"The old Herk did it again for the USA. When President Clinton talked about 61 airplanes (actually 60) inbound to Haiti, he didn't mean F-16's or F-18's.

It was 60 tired, but battle-ready Herks taking the Army's elite 82d Airborne down to kick the door in. As we were lumbering into the air enroute to Haiti, one of the wing's F-16 pilots remarked to one of our tactics Navigators about how poorly the heavily ladened Herks were climbing into the air. The C-130 Navigator calmly remarked, 'Yea, well they're climbing out a lot better than those F-16's stacked like cord wood over by Base Ops!'. There were no more remarks from the peanut gallery. Herks Rule."

restraints on arms sales. (11) As with any capitalistic venture, with increased demand comes the increase in supply. Additionally, the reduced tensions in Europe will reduce the demand for arms by many Western countries and further glut the arms market. More weapons at lower prices will become available for sale to the Third World. Also, there are an increasing number of nations with the capability of developing, producing, deploying and exporting an unprecedented range of military capabilities. This will continue to increase the lethality of the conflicts throughout the world. Over a dozen Third World countries now produce and export sophisticated weapon systems from fighter aircraft and main battle tanks to surface-to-air missiles and long-range ballistic missiles. (12)

The economics of arms sales has also had a significant impact on the Soviet Union. "They have greatly expanded their sales to the Third World for purely economic reasons." (13) The Soviets have been largely unsuccessful in penetrating foreign markets with their nonmilitary manufactured goods, due to quality and competition problems. Some studies suggest that over 50% of their total hard currency earnings now come from arms sales.(14) The Soviet Union is the leading exporter of arms to the developing world. In the past eight years, they have exported to the Third World: over 9,000 main battle tanks, 14,000 light armored vehicles, 20,000 artillery pieces, 2,600 supersonic aircraft and 32,000 surface-to-air missiles. (15) The large market for arms sales also helps the Soviet armed forces turn over old inventory as they modernize their force structure. However, in recent years, Third World clients have demanded the most up-to-date equipment available. So the Soviets have modified some of their most sophisticated new weapons, like the MIG-29, with less secret components, to meet the demand. This willingness to sell high-tech equipment at low prices and favorable

the air crews that must deliver them. As discussed earlier in the thesis, even the tiny island of Grenada had potentially effective air defense guns protecting the Point Salines airfield when the U.S. Ranger forces airdropped during Operation Urgent Fury. Had it not been for the poor siting and ineffective manning of the guns, [AC-130 Spectre gunships? The lead Combat Talon pilot's choice of flying under the guns?] the outcome of the airdrop could have been much different. The Soviets alone have delivered to the Third World over 32,000 surface-to-air missiles in the past eight years. China, the Western World and even some developing countries have also provided tens of thousands of antiaircraft guns and missiles to the Third World. It seems unlikely then that the forced-entry of Airborne forces, delivered by lumbering transport aircraft, to seize key airfields will even be possible in the future. The smallest of countries, with only a modest number of anti-aircraft weapons, will surely concentrate them around the airfields in sufficient numbers to make airdrop on an airfield too costly. The loss of only 5% of the aircraft conducting an Airborne Brigade airdrop, two to four C-141 aircraft full of Paratroopers carrying 250 to 500 personnel, would most likely label an operation as a failure in the eyes of the American public, regardless of the subsequent success of the operation.

Another significant conventional capability not normally considered when dealing with the Third World is the rapid increase in numbers of high performance aircraft. As with the other conventional weapons, the arms race has generated the requirement for many countries to increase or upgrade their aircraft inventories. The resulting proliferation of high performance aircraft has been remarkable, due again, largely to the willingness of the superpowers to sell firstline equipment to the Third World countries. The Third World now has access to almost the same quality of first-line aircraft as the superpowers.

The Soviet sale of MIG-29s to India, Syria and Iraq and the French sale

RETURN TO AES HOME outside frame

RETURN TO AES HOME inside frame