Word: mig
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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This week's cover story is a sales report of sorts. The goods are TOWs, AK-47s, F-5s, MIG-23s, C-130s, Uzi submachine guns and French commando daggers - commodities in one of the world's busiest and potentially most lethal markets, the world arms trade. Associate Editor Burton Pines and Reporter-Researcher Genevieve Wilson began working on the intricate story several weeks ago, as the already staccato pace of major arms deals accelerated. "The most startling figure we found," Wilson says, "is that arms sales have increased 6000% since 1952, from $300 million to $18 billion...
...Egypt began receiving the first of nearly 50 MIG-23 fighter-bombers it had ordered from the Soviet Union; the Egyptians are also negotiating to buy, for an estimated $264 million, 44 Mirage warplanes from France, and are discussing the purchase of a complete Hawk trainer/strike aircraft factory from the British. Cost: more than $250 million...
...exported second-and even third-hand arms. Now some of the newest and most sophisticated aircraft, tanks and missiles are for sale. The MIG-23 going to Egypt and Syria is so advanced that Moscow's Warsaw Pact allies do not even have it yet. The U.S. is allowing the export of the remote-controlled TOW, perhaps the world's deadliest antitank weapon, to Israel, South Viet Nam, Lebanon and Jordan...
...whose sales decisions take into account neither profit nor public opinion. Moscow, for example, beat France on a sale of MIG fighters to its former protectorate of Morocco. Reason: the Soviets offered 17 years of credit at 3% interest, while the best Paris could do was twelve years...
...series, assorted MIG fighter-bombers and the deadly accurate SAM antiaircraft missiles. In addition, the Kremlin for decades has shipped massive quantities of war materiel to the Warsaw Pact states and to the armies of North Korea and North Viet Nam. Dozens of other Third World countries admire Soviet weapons: MIGS, AK-47 automatic rifles (widely regarded as the world's best combat rifle) and armored cars are highly prized...