Lavi prototype refuelling
Posted on 07/28/2010 1:55:00 AM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
Ex-Lavi chief calls for new fighter, not $11 billion on F-35
I spent a week touring Israel's aerospace industry last November, which included a sighting of the only known survivor of the Lavi program. One of many things I came away with is a sense that Israel wants to return to the ranks of the world's developers of manned combat aircraft, rather than a niche supplier of systems and UAVs.
Ex-Lavi program manager and minister of defense Moshe Arens writes in Haaretz today that Israel would be better off launching a joint development program with Russia and India to build a new fighter rather than spend $11 billion to buy 75 Lockheed Martin F-35s. See excerpt below:
Are there alternatives to swallowing our pride and shelling out $3 billion for 20 F-35s? (The original plan had been to acquire 75 aircraft, which would have brought the price above $11 billion, but that was too expensive. ) Before we make that commitment, a little intellectual effort should be invested in looking at other options.
Does Israel still have the technological capability to design a first-rate fighter aircraft? That needs to be examined in some depth. No doubt some of the capability that existed at the time of the Lavi project has been lost over the years, but as has been proved time and again, Israel has a world-class technological capability. Its success in unmanned aerial vehicles is only one of a number of examples.
If it turns out that the capability to design the IAF's next fighter aircraft does exist in Israel, where could we go from there? Not to the U.S. Congress in search of funding, because we would have to remind them that 27 years ago they were fools to invest $1 billion in the development of the Lavi that Israel decided it did not want. We would have to look for partners who are prepared to invest resources in such a project, who have the necessary technological capability, and who are not involved in the F-35 project.
Are there such candidates? In theory, yes. France, with a great aeronautical industry, chose not to participate in the F-35 project. India, with a considerable aeronautical capability and a meteorically growing economy, might be another candidate. And there is Russia. Perhaps none of them would be interested, and perhaps all of them would be. It's worth a try.
Lavi prototype refuelling
Don’t know what, if anything, could be done with this approach, but Israel would be well advised to diversify its critical weapons systems partners away from the US.
Gee, that Lavi looks awfully similar to the Chinese J-10. Glad to see that US development money didn’t go to waste...
By partnering with Russia?
What good are fighter planes when the enemy sits in the White House?
If you’d like to be on or off, please FR mail me.
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That lie has been long debunked.
I don’t have the time, or I’d send you the links. The J-10 is a direct descendant of the pre-existing chicom plane.
There is no evidence of a Lavi going to china, et al.
All those rumors started with a RUSSIAN military group that spread a rumor on Janes, and the Brits media ran with it, as a chance to bash Joooos.
Brilliant Plan: Something about...
“Cutting ones nose off to spite ones face”
W
Stephen Trimble: I spent a week touring Israel's aerospace industry last November, which included a sighting of the only known survivor of the Lavi program. One of many things I came away with is a sense that Israel wants to return to the ranks of the world's developers of manned combat aircraft, rather than a niche supplier of systems and UAVs. Ex-Lavi program manager and minister of defense Moshe Arens writes in Haaretz today that Israel would be better off launching a joint development program with Russia and India to build a new fighter rather than spend $11 billion to buy 75 Lockheed Martin F-35s... France, with a great aeronautical industry, chose not to participate in the F-35 project. India, with a considerable aeronautical capability and a meteorically growing economy, might be another candidate. And there is Russia. Perhaps none of them would be interested, and perhaps all of them would be. It's worth a try.Israel's overseas markets for fighters dried up, but India wasn't buying much at the time. Thanks sukhoi-30mki.
Well it may be worth exploring the question from their POV, but I think they would find the answer is no. There are almost no potential buyers of such a Jet other than the partners mentioned. They couldn’t sell them to Arabs, and they couldn’t sell them for NATO deployment, so it leaves them in a consortium that would compete with the F-35 only in theoretical (and perhaps one day real) combat.
I mean if Russia, India, France, Israel and maybe Brazil build a competitive plane, they would be the only ones to fly it, and if there was a hot war involving these countries their plane would go up against the F-35.
Though you might wonder what capabilities Israel really needs. I got the sense they were buying the F-35 because of political pressure. AFAIK they would prefer and still want the F-22 which was never made available to them.
Do they really need the new fighter jets? Or would their money be better spent on anti-aircraft and anti-missile technology, and UAV bombers?
The only reason they would need F-35 is because Saudi Arabia will want some. US will give Israel money to give to the JSF developers because the Saudis will be paying cash for them. It’s a very strange set of circumstances.
Put it this way-if say one of the following-Russia/India/France/South Korea/Brazil partner with the Israelis there would be a minimum market of at least 400-500 aircraft between the two partner nations, which could stretch to a few hundred more by exports to stable customers. That’s not really a bad count by most yardsticks.
The fact is that all the nations mentioned have some or other 5th generation fighter plans at various stage of conceptualisation or development. And there’s increasing cooperation as well-India is tying with Russia while the South Koreans recently inked a contract with Indonesia (with Turkey also interested) to devleop new fighters.
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