Members of the Ministerial Equipment Committee opposing the purchase of 31 US-built F35 next generation fighter planes explain “we will no longer simply be a rubber stamp for purchase requests”.
The committee voted against the request for 31 of the planes, which cost $142 million each, only approving the purchase of 12-15 of them. There is a stipulation that in three years, after the first F35s are delivered to Israel, the committee will be willing to reexamine the purchase of additional planes. Officials add that this marks the first time in a number of years that the committee failed to automatically approve a shopping list presented by the Israel Air Force or the defense establishment. Committee members were angered at media reports that the deal was approved before the committee convened to give its verdict, signaling the defense establishment took a stamp of approval for granted.
Leading the opposition among committee members was Minister Dr. Yuval Steinitz (Likud) since Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, who chairs the committee, did not attend the session. Also opposed was Minister (Yisrael Beitenu) Yair Shamir, a former air force colonel and retired combat pilot and Minister (Bayit Yehudi) Naftali Bennett.
Israel has already purchased 20 of the planes and the IAF wishes to acquire 75 total. If the air force’s wish list is realized, it will be the largest weapons purchase in the state’s history, amounting to $142 billion, and the sum does not include the additions to the planes once they arrive in Israel.
Air Force Commander Major-General Amir Eshel led the visual presentation, attempting to show and explain to the ministers why the planes are required and the advantages they offer over the current fleet.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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3 Responses
A generation ago the Israelis gave up on developing first rate aircraft, so in effect they are at the mercy of the American company that has a monopoly. From an American perspective, the money spent in getting Israel to dump the Lavi plane was well spent (note that if done by private companies without government involvement this would be a naked violation of antitrust laws – which are inapplicable in this case).
If each F-35 costs $142 million then for the total purchase to amount to $142 billion Israel would have to purchase 1,000 F-35s. But the IAF only wishes to acquire 75 F-35s.
Now let’s do the math: $142,000,000 * 75 = $10,650,000,000.
@Yagel plus interest