Originally Posted by
Foghorn Leghorn
Ha, yes, I know what you mean. Please don’t be a hunter if there’s a COCO bid!
AFM this month has, yes you guessed it, an article on HHA with Potulski adding some artistic license to the F-4F saga. He labours the point that he had an End Use Certificate which is normal and forms part of the submission, along with a cover letter and standard Third-Party Transfer (TPT) questionnaire, by the divesting government (Germany) to the Department of State, Directorate of Defense Trade Controls (DDTC), Bureau of Political-Military Affairs, Office of Regional Security and Arms Transfers (PM/RSAT). This is then examined, and an inter-agency research/analysis is conducted before a determination is made, in this case I suspect it would need a decision by the Undersecretary of State for Arms Control and International Security.
Potulski simply states US approvals were in place then paints a picture of everything was good until COVID which is when "the German disposal agency pulled the plug overnight". What I suspect happened is that after 7 years of supposed negotiations, PM/RSAT notified the German government that it would not alter its original determination; this was that TPT would be granted (it's how the ground instructional frame with many systems removed was acquired after all) but for the 'designated flyer' PM/RSAT would apply a series of provisos and stipulations. These are likely to have been the removal of both the AN/APG-65 and AN/ALR-68 and other items along with limiting access to aspects of the platforms Technical Data. In other words, you can have the aircraft but the bits you want you're not going to get given they're significant military equipment on the US Munitions List (USML) governed by the Arms Export Control Act (AECA) and subjected to US International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) which we don’t want you to have access to.
His obfuscation continues, despite the supposed contractual tasking requirement still existing, when he states “we’re not going to go to Israel, South Korea or Greece to buy a Phantom there because the whole point was having their provenance – the knowledge that EADS or LIG 21 had been through them…..” Having been to Andravida and inspected the PEACE ICARUS 2000 F-4E jets this is simply not true. These aircraft were modernised by EADS and HAI in Tangara to a standard beyond the German F-4F ICE. They have an equally complete provenance, the paperwork is in order, and dare I say it would have been just as easy to obtain MAA approval in principle.
To summarise, they haven’t got a Phantom with all the Gucci kit in it because PM/RSAT said “nope, you’re not getting access to the radar and other avionic systems.”