A measure of the security and projected power of the State of Israel is directly linked to the builders and contractors which supply Israel with state of the art aircraft and munitions.
Firms such as Boeing,Hughes,Mcdonnel Douglas,Lockheed Martin,Raytheon continue in sales and r&d with Israeli defense and other contractors.
Selling a plane to Israel can be a trying experience..Israeli requirements are not easy to meet..the U.S. contractors work hard to create answers to Israels complex military aviation demends..thru these trying realities many success stories emerge for Israel and the U.S...as unique systems are created with knowledge aquired implimented into U.S. avionics and tactical planning for aircraft.
The last major competitions for sales required the U.S. firms to take One aircraft...and make it carry the work load of 3....Air superiority,Ground terrain digital attack with gps guided munitions..along with radar recon jamming technology.
Some systems were only wired up in the fuselage for the Israeli's..who incorporated their comp suites,jamming sets and other tech goodies.
These realities tested production teams and planners..the end result has been 2 aircraft with immense military air capability.
The F-15I [ Thunder] and the newly created F-16I [Storm....deliveries to begin July 2003]
Since Israels birth in 1948 she has faced several full scale wars..allong with wars of attrition inbetween.
Her airforce has downed 686 enemy planes in dog fights..to the loss of only 23 planes in air combat....a success ratio of 30:1 against her Arab neighbors.
Combat data from U.S. built aircraft in Israel's airforce.
Yom Kippur war 1973 ....227 to 5
Operation Peace for Galilee 1982 vs the Syrian Airforce
88-0
Air combat inbetween wars since 1973 to present
125-0
One of the Hero's of the Yom Kippur war...the U.S. built F-4 Phantom..known as "Kurnas" in Hebrew or [Sledgehammer]
Israeli F-16 D's...these aircraft were specially designed by U.S. for Israel..the D has a dorsal spine stuffed with radar jamming equipment which is installed in Israel...here the aircraft fullfills 3 functions allong with munition delivery of JDAMS and other GPS weapons.
In July 2003 the I.A.F. will begin to recieve the new F-16I
F-15I
Since 1998 Israel has ordered 50 F-16I's from Lockheed Martin
50 F-15I's bringing the total to 75
110 F-16 c/d Lockheed Martin.
Would like to mark the anniversary of the U.S. airforce by saying a Big Thankyou to all the American workers ,test pilots and engineers who have presented Israel with the so many excellent aircraft.
Thankyou America!
