US lawmaker
calls for probe into possible $418M arms sale to Kenya
By
Cristina Corbin, FoxNews.com.
IOMAX builds
the Archangel, pictured here, by converting crop dusters into weaponized planes
with high-tech surveillance equipment.
(IOMAX)
A North
Carolina congressman is calling for a probe into a potential $418 million
contract between Kenya and a major U.S. defense contractor announced on
President Obama’s last day in office — a deal the lawmaker claims reeks of
cronyism.
Republican
Rep. Ted Budd wants the Government Accountability Office to investigate a deal
between the African nation and New York-based L3 Technologies for the sale of
12 weaponized border patrol planes. He said he wants to know why a
veteran-owned small company in North Carolina – which specializes in making
such planes – was not considered as the manufacturer.
IOMAX USA
Inc., based in Mooresville and founded by a U.S. Army veteran, offered to build
Kenya the weaponized planes for roughly $281 million – far cheaper than what
its competitor, L3, is selling them for.
“Something
smells wrong here,” Budd told Fox News. “The U.S. Air Force bypassed IOMAX,
which has 50 of these planes already in service in the Middle East.”
“They were
given a raw deal,” Budd said of Kenya, which had requested from the U.S. 12
weaponized planes in its fight against terrorist group Al-Shabaab near its
northern border.
“We want to
treat our allies like Kenya fairly,” he said. “And we want to know why IOMAX
was not considered.”
A State
Department spokesman did not respond to a request for comment about the deal.
A source with
knowledge of the negotiations told Fox News the program was in development with
the State Department for at least a year and its announcement on Obama’s last day
in office was “pure coincidence.”
L3,
meanwhile, strongly dismissed any claim of favoritism in its deal with Kenya —
which was approved by the State Department, not the White House — and pushed
back on reports it has never built such aircraft.
“Any allegations
questioning L3’s experience producing this equipment or the ‘fairness’ of the
process are misinformed or being intentionally perpetuated for competitive
reasons,” the company said in a statement to Fox News.
“L3 recently
received approval from the U.S. State Department for a possible sale to Kenya
of aircraft and related support, including Air Tractor AT-802L planes,” the big
contractor said. “L3 has delivered multiple missionized Air Tractor aircraft,
which were similar to our offering to Kenya and have been fully certified for
airworthiness by both FAA Supplemental Type Certificate and U.S. Air Force
military type certification.”
“L3 is the
only company with an aircraft that has these certifications,” L3 said.
But Ron
Howard, the U.S. Army veteran who started IOMAX in 2001, said, “We’re the only
ones” making the specific weaponized planes that Kenya has requested.
IOMAX’s
factory in Albany, Ga., modifies crop dusters into planes fortified with such
weapons as Hellfire missiles as well as surveillance equipment. The weaponized
plane is called the Archangel, Howard said, and can shoot or bomb with great
precision from 20,000 feet.
“The airplane
is especially designed to be quiet and can’t be heard,” Howard told Fox News.
He said IOMAX has many already operating in the Middle East — purchased by the
United Arab Emirates and dispersed to other countries in the region, such as
Jordan and Egypt.
IOMAX has 208
employees, half of whom are U.S. veterans, Howard said.
In February,
Robert Godec, U.S. ambassador to Kenya, said, “The U.S. military sales process
requires notification of the U.S. Congress and allows oversight committees and
commercial competitors the opportunity to review the entire package before it
is offered to a potential buyer.”
Godec said
the Kenyan government has not signed any agreement to purchase aircraft from
the U.S. and called the process underway “transparent, open, and proper.”
“This
potential military sale would be carried out wholly in keeping with appropriate
laws and regulations,” he said. “The United States stands with Kenya in the
fight against terrorism.”
Original
post: worldbeyondwar.org
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IOMAX
S2R-660 Archangel: Details
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