En voyage en Australie, le secr\u00e9taire \u00e0 la d\u00e9fense Robert Gates entend beaucoup parler du F-22. L’affaire le met dans une situation d\u00e9licate, et l’on dirait m\u00eame, apr\u00e8s tout, \u00e9trangement d\u00e9licate.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\t Le gouvernement australien, \u00e0 l’occasion des rencontres du ministre de la d\u00e9fense australien avec Gates, a officiellement demand\u00e9 au gouvernement US (Gates) la possibilit\u00e9 d’examiner l’achat de Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor<\/em>. Les diverses explications, notablement embarrass\u00e9es, de Gates, sont notamment rapport\u00e9es dans une d\u00e9p\u00eache AFP du 24 f\u00e9vrier<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abUS Defence Secretary Robert Gates said Washington was unable to sell F-22s to Australia because exports of the hi-tech aircraft were banned under a bill introduced into the US Congress by Democrat Dave Obey in the 1990s. So while we in principle have no objection to it, until the statute is changed we are not able to sell it to any country, he said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bb[Australian Defense Minister] Fitzgibbon said Gates had told him to lobby not only the US administration but also Congress if Australia wanted access to the F-22, particularly Congressman Obey. We agreed that I should write to him, Fitzgibbon said.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t()<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abGates said he would pursue it when he returns to Washington next week given the importance that our Australian friends attach to it, but he said he did not know if it was realistic to expect action to lift the export restrictions.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbBecause we have not had the ability to sell the F-22, to be honest I haven’t delved into all the reasons for that what the complications would be, the questions about whether a new design would be required for export, he told reporters here.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbI just need to go back and get better educated on this and in concert with the secretary of state decide if this is a matter that we should pursue with the Congress, he said.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t Dans un article sur cette m\u00eame visite de Gates en Australie, le Financial Times<\/em> du 24 f\u00e9vrier<\/a> concentre son attention sur un aspect d’une conf\u00e9rence de presse du secr\u00e9taire \u00e0 la d\u00e9fense US. Il y est surtout question de la demande du Japon<\/a> pour acheter des F-22, m\u00eame cas que l’Australie.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00abThe Pentagon has not seriously considered the possibility of selling the F-22 stealth fighter to Japan despite a high-level request from Tokyo last year, Robert Gates, the US defence secretary, said on Sunday.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbShinzo Abe, the former Japanese prime minister, last year told President George W. Bush that Tokyo was interested in buying the sophisticated fighter, also known as the Raptor. Japanese officials were hoping the Pentagon would take the lead in urging Congress to overturn a law that bars sales of the aircraft to foreign countries.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p>\n \t\u00bbHowever, speaking to reporters in Australia, Mr Gates conceded that the Pentagon had not been proactive in considering the Japanese request.<\/em>\u00bb<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tLes deux articles donnent bien l’impression d’un Gates fort embarrass\u00e9. Ici, il donne l’impression que le Pentagone veut bien vendre le F-22 (\u00e0 l’Australie) mais qu’il en est emp\u00each\u00e9 par le Congr\u00e8s. Il est m\u00eame pr\u00e8s, semble-t-il, \u00e0 donner au ministre australien de la d\u00e9fense l’adresse du parlementaire Obey, pour que l’Australien lui \u00e9crive une lettre le pressant de lever les restrictions \u00e0 l’exportation du F-22. L\u00e0 (Financial Times<\/em>), il semble qu’il conc\u00e8de n’avoir pas fait grand’chose pour soutenir la demande du Japon qui, comme l’Australie, veut des F-22. Dans tous les cas, on a l’impression d’un certain flou, qui laisse \u00e0 penser aussi bien sur la r\u00e9alit\u00e9 du pouvoir \u00e0 Washington que sur le s\u00e9rieux avec lequel le Pentagone consid\u00e8re les demandes de ses alli\u00e9s (le Japon).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tC’est une illustration int\u00e9ressante de l’imbroglio r\u00e9gnant \u00e0 Washington, au Pentagone et ailleurs, \u00e0 propos du F-22. Ce qui est en cause est, pour l’instant, moins les restrictions du Congr\u00e8s (rien n’a \u00e9t\u00e9 tent\u00e9 pour le convaincre de les lever) que la bataille qui se livre au Pentagone autour du F-22, et dont on a eu r\u00e9cemment<\/a> quelques \u00e9chos<\/a>. Il y a trois factions qui s’affrontent autour du F-22: celle qui veut sa liquidation, avec arr\u00eat d\u00e9finitif \u00e0 183 exemplaires (autour du n\u00b02 du Pentagone, Gordon England); celle qui ne veut rien d\u00e9cider et pr\u00e9f\u00e8re passer la patate chaude \u00e0 la future administration (Gates); celle qui est partisane d’une poursuite du programme jusqu’\u00e0 382 exemplaires (l’USAF et les activistes du Congr\u00e8s).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n \tGates ne veut pas d’interf\u00e9rences ext\u00e9rieures dans cette bataille int\u00e9rieure, d\u00e9j\u00e0 si complexe. La prise en consid\u00e9ration de demandes d’exportation viendrait \u00e9videmment compliquer le cas et, \u00e9ventuellement, renforcer le camp (USAF, Congr\u00e8s) de ceux qui veulent une poursuite du programme. Lorsque Gates explique qu’il existe une l\u00e9gislation du Congr\u00e8s interdisant l’exportation et qu’il semble se d\u00e9fausser de l’impossibilit\u00e9 d’exporter sur le seul Congr\u00e8s, il sollicite la v\u00e9rit\u00e9. Le fait est plut\u00f4t que le Pentagone n’a strictement rien fait pour porter l’affaire devant le Congr\u00e8s, et donc avoir une chance de la r\u00e9soudre (ce que semble sugg\u00e9rer le compte-rendu du Financial Times<\/em>). Dans ce contexte, la demande officielle de l’Australie complique les choses, d’autant plus que, par ce fait, il est question du JSF<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \tMis en ligne le 25 f\u00e9vrier 2008 \u00e0 12H08<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" En voyage en Australie, le secr\u00e9taire \u00e0 la d\u00e9fense Robert Gates entend beaucoup parler du F-22. L’affaire le met dans une situation d\u00e9licate, et l’on dirait m\u00eame, apr\u00e8s tout, \u00e9trangement d\u00e9licate. Le gouvernement australien, \u00e0 l’occasion des rencontres du ministre de la d\u00e9fense australien avec Gates, a officiellement demand\u00e9 au gouvernement US (Gates) la possibilit\u00e9… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"","neve_meta_content_width":0,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[4787,249,3984,4662,250],"class_list":["post-69709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bloc-notes","tag-australie","tag-f-22","tag-gates","tag-japon","tag-jsf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69709","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=69709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69709\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=69709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=69709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/new.dedefensa.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=69709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}