Concerns over the reliability and loyalty of Pakistan’s government in the fight against the Taliban and al-Qaeda are well established. But the compromised nature of Pakistan’s military and intelligence service has not stopped U.S. defense contractors from making million-dollar deals with Islamabad.

 

About $2 billion in aid is delivered each year from the U.S. to Pakistan. This generosity has translated into, among other things, spy planes, surveillance equipment and other spy gear.

 

Not satisfied with what it already has to snoop on its citizens and enemies, Pakistan wants to buy a ground-based surveillance system that “intercepts and locates the sources of enemy communications and then permits continued monitoring of them,” according to a U.S. government contract request sent out to bidders.

 

In addition to the intelligence buys, Pakistan can never seem to get enough of America’s top war-fighting hardware. Its air force includes F-16 fighters, and now it wants more—36 to be exact, for around $3 billion. Most of the big U.S. defense contractors are in on the deal, including Lockheed Martin, BAE Advanced Systems, Boeing, Raytheon, Northrop Grumman, United Technology and General Electric.

 

Of course, there’s no point in owning F-16s if you don’t have weapons to go with them, so Pakistan is ordering $650 million worth of missiles, launchers, bombs (including 700 one-ton bunker-busters) and bomb guidance kits. All of these will be provided by Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman and BAE Advanced Systems.

-Noel Brinkerhoff, David Wallechinsky

 

You’re Still Buying Spy Gear for Pakistan (by Spencer Ackerman, Wired)

$5.1B Proposed in Sales, Upgrades, Weapons for Pakistan’s F-16s (Defense Industry Daily)

U.S. Arms Sales to Pakistan (by Richard Grimmett, Congressional Research Service) (pdf)