http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default...-7-2007_pg1_10
Pakistan Army’s post 9/11 gains from US reach $6.39bn By Khalid Hasan
WASHINGTON: Between 1954 and 2002, the United States provided Pakistan a total of $12.6 billion in economic and military assistance, compared with more than $9 billion the US has dished out to Pakistan since 9/11.
The United States has provided $4.42 billion in economic and military assistance to Pakistan, to which should be added the $4.59 billion in reimbursement for Pakistan’s military contribution to Operation Enduring Freedom, bringing the total amount of direct US Treasury outlay to Pakistan in 2002-2007 to $9.008 billion. Fully $6.39 billion of this amount is directly or indirectly related to Pakistani military programmes.
According to David O Smith, writing in Strategic Insights, a professional magazine, the new element in the defence relationship is a high level of day-to-day cooperation in the global war on terrorism. Although informal mechanisms to coordinate military operations associated with Operation Enduring Freedom were established in late September 2001 and expanded periodically thereafter, they were formally recognised in October 2005 in a Communications Interoperability and Security Memorandum of Agreement. At US Central Command headquarters in Florida, Pakistan maintains a five-man liaison team headed by a brigadier who also is a member of the J5 Coalition Planning Group. Similarly in Pakistan, a liaison cell exists to coordinate operational issues between the US-led Combined Forces Command, Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Army General Headquarters and Joint Staff Headquarters. These liaison elements also assist in managing the bilateral joint exercise programme. In financial year 2006, that programme consisted of four major exercises, typically one each quarter, and three special operations joint/combined exercises. In 2006, Pakistan became the first regional country to command CTF-150, the 14-15 ship combined naval task force that patrols the waterways of the Middle East from the Gulf of Oman to the southern border of Kenya, including the Red Sea.
The US has provided Pakistan with top-of-the-line military equipment. Air force systems delivered or in the pipeline include 36 F-16 C/D block 50/52 fighter aircraft, the most modern version currently flown by the US Air Force; a programme to modernise all 34 of Pakistan’s existing F-16 fleet to the same standard; 500 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAM) - the largest single international AMRAAM purchase in the history of the programme; 200 AIM-9M Sidewinder missiles; and six C-130E transport aircraft.
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