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Sunday, August 15, 2010

Haaretz: Israel approves purchase of 20 Lockheed Martin F-35 fighter planes

By Anshel Pfeffer Tags: Israel new
F-35 Lightning 2

Defense Minister Ehud Barak's approval of the purchase comes after more than two years of tough negotiations involving the Israeli and U.S. defense establishments, and Lockheed Martin.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak approved the purchase of 20 F-35 fighter planes for the Israel Air Force on Sunday.

The planes, manufactured by the American company Lockheed Martin, are expected to arrive in Israel around the year 2015.

Barak's approval of the purchase came after more than two years of tough talks between the Israeli defense establishment, the U.S. Pentagon, and Lockheed Martin.
T-50 Sukhoi PAK FA

The F-35 is the most advanced US fighter plane and it has stealth features. The announced sale may stimulate sales of the Russian T-50 fifth generation fighters to Arab air Forces.  The T-50 has been compared to the earlier F-22 fighter that the US has unfunded.

F-35 Lightning II, also known as the Joint Strike Fighter, manufactured by Lockheed Martin Corp.

The talks were complicated by the IAF's demand to install Israeli systems on the aircraft and the refusal of the Americans to allow those changes.

In the end, the IAF's desire to be the first air force in the Middle East to use the F-35 overcame its demand for the Israeli systems and it agreed to purchase 20 F-35s without the Israeli systems installed.

The Lockheed Martin F-35 is a fifth-generation, single-seat, single-engine, stealth-capable military strike fighter, which can evade radar and anti-aircraft missile systems.


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3 comments:

Scotius said...

Someone needs to know this: The F-22 that the Pentagon was going to buy was going to cost 120 million per plane. Then Lockheed got the government to drop the specifications for what had to be on the plane at that price, but leave the price the same. That's why the Pentagon didn't buy it. After the Pentagon announced they'd just buy Lockheeds' F-35, Lockheed said that since the F-22 ate up the R & D money, and what was on the F-35 was just scaled down, they couldn't sell the F-35 at the price originally agreed on. Originally, the F-35 was to be a small, low cost adjunct to the F-22, like the F-16 is to the F-15, or like the F-18 is to the F-14 Tomcat. So now Lockheed is charging the Pentagon double or around that for a fighter that isn't first class by any standard. The Sukhoi T-50 could vastly outperform it in any respect, and would certainly have been good competition for the F-22 Raptor, while also no doubt being less costly. Well, the idiots who bragged about how great the F-22 was going to be forgot that in the numbers game of fighter aircraft, it isn't just speed, altitude and weapons load, but COST also.

Purchase said...

That looks sophisticated. But then I think stealths are still better than this jet fighter. It looks too bulgy , and can easily be seen as a target. Well, I am just saying. Thanks.

Unknown said...

I don't know. I heard the F-22 needed fuselage repairs after it rained and Sec. Gates in the Pentagon didn't want to buy any more. The F-22, F-35 and the Russian t-50 are all 5th Generation fighters. I used to work in intelligence ad can tell you that the Russians build great fighter aircraft and army equipment.

The Nazis found out the hard way in World War 2. The Russian aircraft were superior in the opening of the Korean War and the Vietnam War. Fortunately, our pilots were more skilled.