Huge Israeli Arms Buy Nobody's Talking About

[Israeli]

By Yael Even Or

The Israeli parliament has become a turbulent place in the past few weeks — even more so than usual. What with key politicians getting fired, there’s been lots of chatter about what this shake-up will mean for the Israel-U.S. relationship. But it may not mean very much at all.

It’s worth noting that while coalition disputes (supposedly) led to the dissolution of the parliament this week, the cabinet still functioned well enough to approve on Sunday a $2-billion deal to purchase stealth fighter jets from American aerospace company Lockheed Martin.

The cabinet authorized this purchase of 14 F-35As following an agreement between American and Israeli defense chiefs in October. This is just one part of a long-term deal that includes a 2010 purchase of 19 warplanes (which won’t arrive until 2016) for $2.75 billion, and maintains the option of purchasing 17 more in the future.

If the deal, which all together entails 50 jets, is completed, Lockheed Martin has agreed to purchase $6 billion worth of security equipment from Israel. It will also give Israel comfortable credit conditions.

Source: http://blogs.forward.com/forward-thinking/210384/huge-israeli-arms-buy-nobodys-talking-about/?

[aranthus]

1. Old news

This sale has been in the works for years. What it suggests is that the Israelis are satisfied with their testing of the the first batch of planes. There have been questions about them. Also, the diagram of the plane at the top of the page is wrong. It shows an F-35C; the jump jet version of the plane. The Israelis are buying the F-35J version which doesn't have the hover capability.