Nov 26, 2019

Jordan has obtained spare American fighter jets for an undisclosed sum and plans to upgrade large transport planes, a State Department official told Al-Monitor, as the Pentagon has moved in recent months to cultivate Middle East interest to keep production going for aging US weapons systems.

The agency OK’d the provision of F-16 fighter jets to Jordan in September through the US government’s so-called Excess Defense Articles program, known as EDA. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Arab nation plans to use the planes, which the US Air Force no longer buys, to provide spare parts to its current fleet.

Amman will integrate the Lockheed Martin-made C-130 Hercules into its arsenal only after upgrading the avionics and traffic collision systems onboard the aircraft, the official said, which will depend upon the availability of Jordan’s funds for the project. The United States has already provided Jordan with two of the aircraft in the past two years.

Jordan received more than $30 million in Pentagon military aid for the fiscal year that ended in September, mainly to help reinforce communications networks around the country’s border areas, as the longtime American partner has faced threats from terror groups such as the Islamic State (IS). The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service estimated that as many as 4,000 Jordanian fighters left to join the militant group on battlefields across the Middle East and North Africa since 2011.

But Jordan’s homegrown efforts to counter radicalism have floundered since the government first announced a plan to curb militancy in 2014, experts say, a result of weak implementation and focus on bureaucratic instead of social channels.