Fri, May 18, 2007
Aimed At Cutting Off Parts Supply To Iran
Building on a current ban on the sale of surplus parts to
hostile countries such as Iran, on Thursday the US House of
Representatives took action to ban the Pentagon from selling
leftover parts from its recently retired fleet of F-14 Tomcats,
period.
Originally a separate bill known as the "Stop Arming Iran Act,"
the measure was rolled into the current $646 billion military
budget the House approved this week. The bill now heads to the
Senate for a vote, reports the Washington Post.
As Aero-News reported last
month, the Department of Defense earlier this year
suspended the sale of surplus F-14 parts -- as well as parts from
other aircraft, that could be used on Tomcats -- while it conducts
a voluntary review of its procedures.
The DoD is concerned Iran -- the only country still flying
F-14s, or at least trying to -- will purchase those parts to
maintain its aging fleet. The country's government is openly
hostile to the United States, and its interests.
Congress hopes to add teeth to the current ban, by making it a
federal offense -- literally -- to sell Tomcat parts to an entity
other than a museum.
"I believe that the process needs to be tightened up and now
that I've really been made much more aware of the problems that can
arise, I plan to be more vigilant on future problems," said Arizona
Representative Gabrielle Giffords, who sponsored the bill with
Oregon Senator Ron Wyden. Giffords' district includes Davis-Monthan
Air Force Base in Tucson, where many of the F-14s are
mothballed.
If the defense funding bill fails to win approval, Giffords says
she will reintroduced her bill separately. She stressed it is
important to preserve demilitarized examples of the 1970s-vintage
fighters in museums, for historians.
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