U.S. Planning to Give Honduras F-5E Squadron
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WASHINGTON — The Reagan Administration plans to provide a squadron of F-5E jet fighters to Honduras, a move that would give Nicaragua’s neighbor the first advanced combat jets in Central America, officials said Thursday.
Elliott Abrams, assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that he expects formal notification to be made to Congress soon.
The F-5Es are far more advanced than any other combat aircraft now in use in Central America. Honduras already has the most advanced air force in the region, with a squadron of rapidly aging, French-made Super Mystere fighters.
A State Department official said that the proposed sale would include eight to 12 F-5Es, made by Northrop Corp. of Los Angeles.
Congress could block the sale, but government officials said they consider that unlikely.
Officials from Nicaragua, which has no jet fighters, have sporadically announced their intention to acquire MIG-21 jets from the Soviet Bloc, but the Administration has warned that it would respond with military action to destroy the planes.
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