Israel To Buy The F-35 If Their Conditions Met

December 1, 2009 by Matthew Potter · Comment
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, Department of Defense, Events, FMS, Israel, Lockheed Martin, Military Aviation, Services, U.S. Air Force, development program, production program 

Israel would like to buy the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) to add modern, stealthy aircraft to its fleet of F-15 and F1-6 aircraft. As with the previous generation of United States aircraft they would also like the ability to integrate their own electronics and weapon systems on it. The Israelis have done this with all the weapons they have bought or captured over the years.

They rely on their own sophisticated defense industry to develop systems that they would like to put on the various platforms that they operate. The U.S. has resisted the Israeli requests in a bid to protect the technology and systems developed for the F-35. The Israelis have been negotiating this issue for several months and have won most of what they want but the desire to put their own electronic warfare system has things stymied. The U.S. will allow radar and weapons to be added but do not want to open the software at that level to Israel.

The contract could be for up to seventy-five aircraft total making Israel one of the largest purchasers and would certainly help the program facing budget issues and delays. The more that the U.S. is able to sell overseas the lower the average price of an aircraft will be. It behooves the U.S., Lockheed Martin and Israel to work out some sort of deal as the advanced capability of this aircraft will only help Israel in the future.

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Israel To Provide Naval SAMS to India

November 11, 2009 by Matthew Potter · 2 Comments
Filed under: Business Line, Companies, Contract Awards, Countries, Events, India, Israel, Military Aviation, missile defense, production program 

It is reported that the Indian Government is planning on signing a deal with Israel to provide Barak naval Surface-to-Air Missiles (SAMS). The reported contract is worth over $1 billion. Israel has long made efforts to export its indigenous arms in order to facilitate their development and lower the cost to the domestic military. India has turned to non-traditional arms suppliers in an effort to upgrade the technology levels of their equipment.

In the past India has purchased a great deal of weapons from Russia and England while trying to develop its own arms industry. Now it is buying from the United States and Israel. The Israelis have already signed a large deal for modern airborne radar and surveillance aircraft. They had also bought land based SAMs as well from Israel. This deal if it goes through will provide a significant capability to the Indian Navy.

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