Iraq set to buy air-defense

Iraq is ready to buy five electronic warfare radar systems from Eastern
Europe that would give Saddam Hussein the capability of detecting and
shooting down radar-evading U.S. stealth bombers, The Washington Times
has learned.

Senior Clinton administration officials were informed of the deal late
last month by the CIA. Diplomatic and other efforts are under way to
derail the weapons transfer, which would pose a major threat to U.S.
aircraft — both stealth and conventional — that operate in the
region. “We’re aware of this,” said one administration official.
“This is something we are working on. ” According to knowledgeable
sources, a group of Bulgarian arms dealers is working secretly with
Czech military officials to arrange the sale to Baghdad of five
electronic warfare systems, known as Tamara, for up to $375 million.

State Department spokesman James Rubin declined to comment on this
specific case but said generally: “When it comes to this area, that is
protecting our technological edge in the information and sensing
technology areas, we leave no stone unturned in protecting our defense
technology and making sure that we do all that we can so that our
adversaries can’t gain new advances in technology that could put our
forces at risk. ” Disclosure of the secret radar deal comes as Baghdad
continues its standoff over American U. N. inspectors and is
threatening to shoot down unarmed U.S. reconnaissance aircraft with
surface-to-air missiles.

The state-of-the-art electronic warfare systems are made by the Czech
Republic’s Tesla-Pardubice Co. , which has claimed the unique
technology of passive detection allows it to pick up electronic
emissions from radar-evading aircraft such as the F-117 and B-2 bombers
— the world’s only operational stealth planes. The CIA estimates that
up to 15 of the radar systems are available for export. Some of the
Tamara systems are now part of the arsenals of the Czech, Russian and
German armed forces. According to intelligence officials familiar with
the deal, a group of Bulgarian arms dealers, including retired Bulgarian
Gen. Peter Barbalov, an ambassador to Iraq in the early 1990s, was
working as late as two weeks ago to broker the deal, which has been
under negotiation with Iraq since July.

All weapons sales to Iraq are banned under United Nations sanctions
imposed on Baghdad since the end of the 1991 Persian Gulf war.
Transfer of the system to Iraq by the Czech Republic also would be an
embarrassment for the Prague government, which is expected to be
admitted into the NATO alliance in the coming months. Iraq’s military
once had the most sophisticated nationwide air defense system in the
region, with integrated radar and a variety of air-defense missiles.
The air defense grid was blown up in the early hours of the Gulf war
through the use of F-117 stealth jets. Officials said Iraqi leader
Saddam Hussein is seeking the Tamara radar as a direct counter to the
F-117.

The Tamara systems are being offered for sale from a supplier in the
Czech Republic that the officials did not identify. The systems are
then to be shipped by air to Turkey and transported by truck into
northern Iraq, the officials said. The payment for the systems,
estimated at about $75 million per unit, is to be made in cash to
several arms dealers in the Czech Republic who are believed to have
access to a military warehouse where the systems are stored.

According to the intelligence sources, high-ranking officials of the
Czech military and government are involved in the sale. Gen. Barbalov,
the key arms broker in the deal, maintains close ties to Iraqi leaders,
including Gen. Amar Rashid, head of the Iraqi military-industrial
complex. The arms sales, including the Tamara radar and other weapons,
include many Russian-made arms that have been falsely marked “made in
Bulgaria” to disguise their Russian origin. The radar sale is expected
to be carried out by identifying the end user as a nation other than
Iraq in order to circumvent the U.N. sanctions, officials said.

Additionally, the officials have said top authorities in the Bulgarian
Socialist Party, which was ousted from power in April elections, are
aware and “supportive” of the radar sale. The officials said reports
have identified BSP leader Georgi Purvanov as having information about
the pending sale.

Gen. Barbalov, who was to travel to Baghdad in July as part of the radar
deal, is said to be working with Russia’s military and scientific
complex and has bragged that almost any Russian arms can be bought,
including the most advanced jet fighters, outside of Moscow’s control.
Gen. Barbalov is president of Inochem-SI Ltd. , an arms trading
company registered with the Czech government. Another broker
identified by the officials is Ivan Dimitrov, a former Bulgarian
military intelligence officer and current head of Skylift International,
a Bulgarian arms seller. Zhari Zahariev, a Bulgarian Socialist Party
member and president of the Slaviani Foundation, also has been linked to
the deal.

According to U.S. officials, there continues to be close ties between
Bulgarian arms traders and Russian weapons producers. Maj. Gen.
Oldrizhikh Barak, president of the company that produces Tamara, told
the Russian newspaper Pravda last year that the company is struggling as
a private firm and that the Tamara uses a “chronometric hyperbolic
principle” that with three units spaced several miles apart can track
stealth or similar low-signature aircraft from distances of about 12
miles, not the 93 miles that most other systems begin to track
targets.

Gen. Barak also said a number of Western nations were interested in
buying the Tamara radar. “The question of the sale of Tamara in and of
itself, which relates to military supertechnologies, is quite complex
and takes a great deal of time,” he said. Permission by the Czech
government is required before the radar can be sold, and the entire
process can take up to 18 months, he said. Asked about Czech
government disinterest in helping the company, Gen. Barak said, “they
simply cast us to the whims of the market. ” According to the magazine
Jane’s Defense Weekly, the Tamara can track more than 72 targets at
once.