Pakistan could still buy eight F-16s. It just had to find $430 million more.

Pakistan’s F-16s did not become unavailable because the United States stopped making them. The financing that made this particular purchase affordable disappeared.

The Obama administration had approved the sale of up to eight F-16 fighters to Pakistan in February 2016. The planned arrangement was valued at about $699 million, with Pakistan expected to pay close to $270 million and the balance covered through the US Foreign Military Financing programme. On 2 May, State Department spokesman John Kirby said Congress had blocked the use of that financing.

The aircraft and the seller remained the same. The price Pakistan had to fund changed. BBC reported that Pakistan would have to pay more than $700 million if it still wanted the eight aircraft, about two and a half times the original amount it was expected to pay. The difference between the approximate Pakistani contribution and the full price was roughly $430 million, but it should not be described as a separate penalty or cancellation fee.

The congressional objection was political. Republican Senator Bob Corker said he would use his authority as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to prevent US subsidies for the deal. RFE/RL, drawing on Reuters and Xinhua, reported that Corker wanted to send Pakistan a message that it needed to do more in the fight against terrorism. Congressional critics also questioned whether the fighters might be used against India rather than militants.

The State Department did not describe the sale itself as permanently prohibited. The BBC reported that a senior official said the Obama administration still favoured selling the aircraft, but that Pakistan would have to bear the full cost. That distinction is central. Congress removed a financing route while the underlying offer remained formally possible.

Pakistan said the aircraft were needed for counterterrorism operations. A spokesman for the Pakistani embassy in Washington told the BBC that F-16s provided “precision strike capability” for the country’s campaign against militancy and that both governments continued to work toward capacity building. That was Pakistan’s position, not an independent finding about how the aircraft would be used.

The financing decision nevertheless made the purchase impractical. BBC reported that people close to the deal considered it highly unlikely that Pakistan would pay the full cost. The embassy spokesman declined to comment on the deal’s current status, saying arms sales were a long process. The article therefore described a purchase that was effectively off in practice rather than a formal cancellation instrument signed by both parties.