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Venezuela to buy K-8 jet trainers from China

by rahul | November 1, 2008 at 02:29 pm

427 views | 14 Recommendations | 4 comments

As the US denied any further military assistance to Venezuela amid growing animosity between President Chavez and Bush, Caracas expressed serious concerns over the pile up of arms in Colombia under an American assistance plan to fight drug trafficking and guerrilla. In addition, a Venezuelan multi polar foreign policy took root and strategic alliances were forged with China, Iran and Russia. To the dismay of the local opposition, such arrangements have started to provide dividends. After launching its first Chinese made satellite this week, Venezuela intends to purchase from China twenty four K-8 jets for training purposes too. On the other hand, an Russian Venezuela joint venture starts exploring gas tomorrow. And Russian Vice President is expected in Caracas on Monday to prepare the first ever official visit of Dimitri Medverev to Caracas later this month.

The The Venezuelan Air Force will buy 18 K-8 trainer jets from China, rather that the 24 aircrafts President Hugo Chávez had previously announced, to train pilots, said on Thursday General Luis Berroterán Acosta, the commander of the Bolivarian Air Force. "The contract has been signed and the jet trainers are on the production line in China. In a short time, I will be able to disclose the exact arrival date of the first K-8 shipment," said Berroterán at a press conference on the occasion of the 88th anniversary of the creation of the military aviation. The high-ranking military officer explained that the aircraft has the capacity to transport weapons, carry bombs, rockets and shoot machine guns. Berroterán clarified that the Venezuelan Air Force will not participate in the joint maneuvers with Russia, since the Russian Army is upgrading the aircraft systems which would be used in the military exercises. He announced that during the rest of the year, the Air Force would not buy additional weapons.

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Amy Judd

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 14:35 on November 1st, 2008

rahul, I'm kind of surprised they have the money to purchase these jets actually. But of course, I don't really know; just wondering

rahul

at 14:56 on November 1st, 2008

Thanks for the GS Flag! I guess money is available due to a foreign exchange control, the managament of foreign debt and high oil prices.

Reserves: Venezuela's International Monetary Reserves peaked to USD 40.47 billion, showing a 2.24 percent growth in the last month, reported on October 31 the Central Bank.