What are the logistics involved in delivering F16s to Egypt?

This week, the DoD has decided to delay delivering F16 airplanes to the new regime in Egypt. That has left me wondering just how that delivery is done. Assume that the delivery happens as planned:
[ul]
[li]Are these new, “showroom” quality planes or older airplanes that the Air Force was going to dispose of anyway?[/li][li]Who owns the planes, the manufacturer or the US government?[/li][li]To whom do the Egyptians make out the check? Does money exchange hands at all?[/li][li]How do the airplanes get there? Does Egypt send its own pilots to pick them up?[/li][li]Do the airplanes come with accessories like external fuel tanks, weapons platforms, actual ordnance and ammunition?[/li][li]What about the ground equipment required to maintain and operate these airplanes? Who trains the crews responsible for actually making the thing fly?[/li][li]What happens if the planes crash (or get shot down) on the way to Egypt? Presumably, Egypt needs them because they have enemies. What if one of those enemies shoots them down before they arrive?[/li][li]Does the United States get them back at some point in the future?[/li][li]Is there some way to prevent them from being used against American or American-friendly forces in the future? (I’m thinking like Star Trek’s prefix code that was used to good effect in ST2:TWoK.)[/li][/ul]
Anyone here know how this would actually work, just from a practical standpoint? I’m not talking about the political debate, just how to get the planes there and useful.

I’ve always thought that we should deliver them anywhere there is conflict with some sort of remote disabling software. “Knock it off or we will turn off your shinny new weapons system.”

Or maybe we do and just don’t let the buyer know it???

Assuming we deliver them, I can think of dumber things for one of Egypt’s enemies to do than shoot down an F-16 with a USAF pilot flying it, but not many.

No money changes hand - or more precisely, since the planes are purchased with U.S. military aid, the U.S. government pays the manufacturer and delivers them to Egypt.

Cite? What would the U.S. gain in giving weapons away?

Hmm - The US of A wants to keep those towel headed Muslims out of power. The best way to do that is to keep the military in power.

To do that you make sure that they have loads of shiny new armoured cars, tanks and any other toys they want. This has the added benefit of bringing work to the US armaments businesses without it being a direct subsidy.

Win Win I think.

Foreign Military Financing.

MODERATOR NOTE–

bob++. Try not to use disparaging terms such as 'towel headed Muslims" on the SDMB.

samclem, moderator

You are joking of course.

What would happen? Obama would give them a stern talking to? Or maybe Michelle would bake them some cookies and ask them to be nice?

Probably not much different than Turkey

I don’t even think the USAF owns the planes outright. A lot of it is licensed or leased.

I can’t speak to the exact situation with F-16, but I worked in Foreign Military Sales a couple of decades ago. The purchase of military hardware manufactured in the United States is more complicated than someone writing a check. Some money is paid directly to the United States. The US then pays Civil Servants to oversee the purchase. Since many of these weapons systems have software in them, the software must be modified to meet legal and customer requirements, sometimes by US civil servants, sometimes by the manufacturer. All versions must be tested and quality controlled.
Some money is paid by the nation to the contractor. I wasn’t involved with this, but I think the money passed through the USG first.
Sometimes 3rd party contractors in other countries (US allies) are involved. Let’s just say, that when multiple governments are involved in production of an aircraft the milestone meetings are ‘spirited’.
The FMS system I was involved in had pilots from the purchasing nation train in the US to be type certified (part of the purchase price that was paid to DoD). They took delivery in the US and with US assistance (tankers) flew the aircraft to their home country.

Obama has ordered U.S. participation in military intervention in Libya, a record number of drone strikes in Pakistan and in Yemen, and of course he ordered the Navy SEALS to kill bin Laden (deep in Pakistani territory, and IIRC without notifying the Pakistani government in advance). There is no reason to think he wouldn’t order military retaliation against some government or group which shot down a U.S.-built aircraft being flown by an American pilot.

Maybe some refueling tankers, but I would be really surprised if the U.S. Air Force (or any other branch of the U.S. military) “leases” warplanes (fighters, bombers, attack planes and attack helicopters, and so forth). Do you have some information that shows otherwise?

I stand corrected. This Washington Post article gives an idea of how the 3-billion-dollar F-16 deal, among others, could be financed entirely through an annual, predictable aid budget of 1.3 billion.

On the dollars and who gets what, see p. 12 et seq in the Congressional Research Service’s “Egypt: Background and US Relations”(2013).

Lot of OP left, though.

[nitpick]
DOD didn’t decide on holding off shipment, White House/State did, executing a law earlier passed by Congress.
[/nitpick]

[quote=“Drum_God, post:1, topic:664624”]

[li]What about the ground equipment required to maintain and operate these airplanes?[/li][/QUOTE]

Yea, this is something that I also have questions about.

There is a lot more to having a fleet of aircraft than simply acquiring the aircraft:

Fueling equipment, and the trained personnel to perform it
Software/firmware updates, uploading/downloading codes, etc., and the trained personnel to perform it
Munitions and missiles hardware & software, and the trained personnel to perform it
Full command and logistics center, and the trained personnel to perform it
Routine maintenance, and the trained personnel to perform it
Periodic inspections, associated equipment, and the trained personnel to perform it
Ramp-level diagnostics and repair, associated equipment, and the trained personnel to perform it
Depot-level diagnostics and repair center, and the trained personnel to perform it
Spare parts inventories
Logistics software and databases
Trainers for the trained personnel
TO libraries
Calibration and adjustment of all sensors, LRUs, and cal standards, and the trained personnel to perform it

And that’s a short list. Just off the top of my head.

Google bares its most [insert here overwrought pornographic adjectives suitable for different sexual tastes] result here:

Military aircraft maintenance companies.

If their plan is to get spare parts from the U.S., then there shouldn’t be much worry over the sale, since it gives the U.S. control over the fleet. If the U.S. believes the fleet is being used for bad/evil purposes, the U.S. can simply cut off the supply of spare parts. The planes can’t fly when there’s no source for spare parts.

You might want to explain that to the Iranians. They’re still flying F-14s, F-5s and AH-1 SuperCobras 34 years after we cut off thier source of spare parts.

Yes, and the world trembles in fear at their air superiority. The Iranians would indeed love a little 'splaining.

I’m afraid I don’t see your point. The F-14 has had exactly two operators in its history, the US Navy and Iran. Iran still has 40 airframes with 25 reportedly operational; rather impressive considering they haven’t openly taken delivery of spares from the US for 34 years, and it’s about the hardest plane on the planet to acquire spares for on the black market. It’s been retired from service from the USN, and the retired examples were shredded rather than kept in the airplane grave yard in order to deny them as a potential source of spares for Iran. Compared to the F-14 the F-16 is absurdly easy to find spares for on the black market, with over 4,500 having been delivered to 26 countries.

Before laughing at the notion of others trembling in fear at Iranian air superiority, you’d do well to consider a couple of things. One is the combat record of the F-14 in Iranian hands. They are credited with shooting down 160 Iraqi aircraft during the Iran-Iraq war, rather impressive for a plane “unable to fly” since there was no source for spares aside from cannibalizing. The other is the 290 passengers and crew killed when the USS Vincennes shot down Iran Air Flight 655. Any guesses what the crew of the *Vincennes * misidentified the Airbus as? An F-14. An Iranian F-14 that caused enough fear for the Vincennes to put two missiles into an Iranian Airbus and kill 290 civilians.