VetteMuscle427 said:
I have read that book many times... and I find it hard to believe that the Mexicans would spend ALL that money on SU-27s to knock a small unarmed drug runner out of the sky....
They have F-5s... those would be more than enough to do the job. So would any of their H-60s armed with crew served weapons...
Not that I think they would even have the cajones to actually engage a drug runner...
Why the hell would the Venezulans buy F-16's in the early 80's, or Brazil have an aircraft carrier, or......well, the list goes on. A lot of it has to do with prestige and a bit of machismo. Look around the world and you will find that in many places. One of the better examples lately is Hugo Chavez.
Plus, I would bet that they are not going to get new Flankers. Russia, Belarus and Ukraine all have plenty of surplus Flankers that they could "refurbish" and sell them. Another thing to keep in mind is that in many countries military procument decisions are not always made on the advice of people who are the most knowledgable. One of the best examples is India. Its Air Force had been screaming for 20 years that they needed a modern jet trainer but the government just signed the contract in the past two years, and they still don't have the planes, BAE Hawks. Their fighter jet crash rate is an example of why they need a jet trainer.
Finally, some of the better aircraft to go after drug runners is something along the lines of a turbo-prop trainer like the T-6A Texan II, the Greeks bought the armed version, or the Brazilian Embraer EMB-312 Super-Tucano
http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/images/AIR_AT-27_Super_Tucano_lg.jpg (The Brazilian AF uses it as a drug interdiction aircraft). Slow enough to intercept a bug smasher but fast enough to run down everything else but a jet.