Venezuela to buy 24 Russian fighter jets

By CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER, Associated Press WriterThu Jun 15, 12:54 PM ET

President Hugo Chavez said Venezuela will buy 24 Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets this year, and his government will build a factory to produce Kalashnikov assault rifles.

Chavez said Wednesday that the SU-30 jets will replace a fleet of U.S.-made F-16s, which he says Venezuela has had trouble maintaining because the United States has refused to sell his government upgrades.

"First we are going to buy 24 Sukhoi S-30s, and we are going to leave open the possibility of a future acquisition" of Sukhoi S-35s, Chavez said in a speech.

Chavez has used surging oil revenues to modernize Venezuela's military while warning that the country must be prepared for a potential conflict with the United States. He said earlier while addressing troops that the first shipment of Russian jets would arrive by Dec. 31.

He said Venezuela "is going to set up the first Kalashnikov factory in South America," while the military already has received an initial shipment of 30,000 AK-103 assault rifles out of a total of 100,000.

Chavez, a former army paratrooper commander, handed out new rifles to troops and at one point paused to inspect one of the guns, aiming at the horizon.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060615/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/venezuela_fighter_jets_1