Posted on 06/04/2008 7:32:56 PM PDT by Dawnsblood
Israel wants to start buying radar-evading Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 fighter jets as soon as 2011, with delivery likely about two years later, a U.S. F-35 program official said on Wednesday.
The interest in acquiring an initial batch of up to 25 F-35s dovetails with Israeli fears that Iran is seeking a nuclear bomb and could have it as soon as 2010, sooner than predicted by the United States.
Iran says its nuclear ambitions are limited to generating electricity.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in Washington on Tuesday, at the start of a three-day visit to the United States, that the Iranian nuclear program must be stopped by "all possible means."
The single-seat, supersonic F-35 is hard to detect by radar and is designed to knock out enemy fighters while simultaneously carrying out bombing missions.
Olmert was to meet President George W. Bush later on Wednesday for talks that could include Israel's interest in the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter. Israel also may be interested later in the F-35B version that can land vertically.
"It's possible that things could come up," said Dana Perino, a White House spokeswoman, when asked about possible Bush-Olmert talks on arms sales to Israel. "Obviously Israel wants to defend itself, and the United States has been supportive."
An Israeli Embassy spokesman declined to comment.
Israel is seeking to integrate its own weapons, communications, command, control and intelligence systems into the F-35, said the Pentagon program official, speaking on condition of anonymity due to the matter's sensitivity.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
Since it’s a “joint” program, Israel should be one of the first partners receiving new units. They’ll test the envelope better than anyone for us too.
The F35 will make every other fighter on earth obsolete. Who wouldn’t want it?
We’re still keeping the best for ourselves.
I want one, that’ll clean up the neighborhood!
This fighter and the F-22 will provide total air superiority for a couple of decades. Iran had best be afraid, very afraid.
Yep. They are as far ahead of current fighters as the F14 and F15 were when they were introduced 30 years ago. A plane that can fly at nearly Mach 2 without using afterburners, while completely stealthy. The first sign enemy fighters would have is when missiles suddenly appear out of nowhere on radar in front of or behind them.
Of course the F15 with our pilots will still smoke the vast majority of what other countries have, and will still see service for some time to come.
It's not Iran that we need to impress:
In the meantime we should lend-lease Israel a dozen B-1s and all the F-117s currently in mothballs. Say maybe at a buck a year. Maybe that would help stabilize the region.
The F-35 can’t be so great if Bruce Willis was able to destroy one in a fight in the last Die Hard movie.
The US should not sell the F-35 to Israel, until Israel cleans up it act with regards to military exports to America’s enemies.
Thanks to Israel, China has a fighter which US taxpayers paid to develop.
I thought the F-22 could still run circles around an F-35 JSF.
That is correct. The F-22 is the air superiority fighter; the F-35 is the workhorse.
And just think what it will do when IAI makes their mods...;)
I agree!
I am Jewish and support Israel but I think Israel has become a banana republic thanks to the USA and thanks to itself- a country with no guts.
Israel won the 1967 war without US help.
It should wean itself off US aid (with all the strings attached) and jack up its own ability to produce aircraft.
As for giving secrets away, its all on in love and war.
The US gave Israeli secrets to the Saudis in the past. Nothing new. So Israel helped China with a jet, yeh so what?
The Chinese jet is just one of its jets, not the only one. The Chinese Su27 is far superior in many ways. Also the Lavi based jet by now is 2 decades old in design. It is a non stealthy base design and the JSF and F22 are way ahead.
I stand corrected, I was confusing the two. The F35 has a top speed of Mach 1.6, the F22 has a top speed of about Mach 2, with a supercruise speed of Mach 1.78.
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Inexperienced you are, young Skywalker, in the ways of the Force? Most powerful in the galaxy, the F-22 is.
It wasn’t a fair fight, Bruce had a pistol.
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