Originally Posted by
MarkD
I don't know what he meant either but in a military context I would contend guaranteed is only a word you can use when you own, not when a contractor can renege.
Or when your US supplier reneges:
http://www.globalsecurity.org/milita...t/f-16-fms.htm
There exists an ongoing potential for turning-off maintenance and technological support for US high-tech weapons to countries that have fallen out of political favor with America. Combat effectiveness is a function of sophisticated weapons, and the the maintenance and support that keeps them operational. The cutoff in maintenance support was so effective against Iran that most of their most capable air defense interceptor -- the F-14 Tomcat -- became spare parts bins after US support was terminated.
In May 2006 Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez accused the United States of blocking the sale of replacement parts for Venezuela's F-16 fighter jets and U.S. authorities have moved to block military sales to Caracas from Brazil and Spain. Chavez say he was considering the purchase of Russian Sukhoi airplanes, after US efforts to prevent Venezuela from buying military aircraft from other countries.
On 15 May 2006 the United States will suspend the sale and retransfers of U.S. arms to the Andean nation, according to the U.S. Department of State. The State Department certified to the U.S. Congress that Venezuela was "not fully cooperating" with U.S. anti-terrorism efforts, a designation that State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said was well earned. "They have been placed on this list and they have earned their spot honestly," he said. McCormack cited Venezuela's cultivation of relationships with state sponsors of terror, such as Cuba and Iran, and he indicated that these relationships have hindered intelligence-sharing and anti-terrorism cooperation with Venezuela. "Now, if you're developing a much closer intelligence-sharing relationship with a state sponsor of terror, I think it's only reasonable that the United States is going to say, 'Wait a minute.' We don't know if we can reasonably cooperate with that sort of state because we are worried about a variety of consequences, including the sharing with a state sponsor of terror of information that we have provided on that very subject, trying to fight terror," he explained. The "not fully cooperating" designation will end all commercial arms sales and retransfers to Venezuela.
So unless we are assuming that we will always fall in line with US Foreign Affairs positions (YOU ARE EITHER WITH US OR AGAINST US), no one seems to have "guaranteed" use of their hardware, unless they manufacture it and every one of its components.