Free Republic

Thirty-one years ago, on Aug. 30, 1987, an Israeli cabinet voted to terminate Israel’s Lavi fighter program, ending the largest single weapons development effort in the history of the Jewish state. It was a narrow, party-line vote in a divided “national unity” Cabinet. As the story behind this airplane has receded into history and its memory has faded among the succeeding generations, its broader meaning and significance to Israel’s national security has likewise been largely lost. The consequences of decisions not fully understood at the time that they were made will so often be visited upon the generations that follow....

Thirty years ago 26 government ministers had to decide the fate of the Lavi fighter – the world’s best fighter aircraft at the time and Israel’s crowning technological achievement. Most of the ministers had no idea of what made an aircraft fly or of the level of engineering expertise required to design and produce a modern fighter plane, probably the most complex engineering system produced by man.  There was a lot of behind-the-scenes political manipulation that contributed to the result: a vote of 13-12 for cancelling the program, and one abstention. But three arguments presented to the government made an...

In preparation for 35th anniversary of the authorization of the Lavi aircraft project, we interviewed Maj. Gen. (res.) David Ivry, who accompanied the development of that ill-fated aircraft from the first step. Exclusive In the summer of 1967, at the outset of the Six-Day War, the Government of France imposed an embargo on the supply of arms to Israel, and cancelled a transaction involving the supply of Mirage-5 fighter aircraft that were to be delivered to Israel as of December 1967. This embargo threatened Israel’s ability to defend itself, and the Israel Ministry of Defense consequently decided to assign the...

It would seem to be a fairly basic principle for a pro-Israel organization to accept: that the Jewish people is an indigenous nation to the Land of Israel. Not so for J Street and several other self-defined “liberal Zionist” organizations. At the World Zionist Congress last week, a proposal entitled “Recognition of the Jewish People as Indigenous to the Land of Israel” was proposed by LAVI, a relatively small but active group of newcomers to the World Zionist Organization’s legislative body that ran in the elections to the congress last year as part of the Alliance for New Zionist Vision...

On Wednesday, Barack Obama made a weak plea for support to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) agreement with Iran. He even went so far as to castigate opponents of this foreign policy faux pas as equal to Iran’s maniacal Islamists. Obama states the only alternative to accepting his deal is war. Well, we already reported Russia’s looking to sell Iran a fleet of aerial refueling tankers. Now, there’s another report about an Iranian weapons purchase — and the report is not coming from our media. As reported by the Jerusalem Post: Iran is beginning to reap the fruits...

Upgrading military aircraft – fixed wing and rotary – is a common operation performed all over the world. You take an old platform, reinforce the fuselage and wings, install some new systems and it can fly for many more years. But what Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) is currently doing with its old Kfir fighter aircraft is an exception. The Kfir (Lion Cub) fighter is a single-seat multitask fighter built by IAI. The aircraft was first built for the Israeli air force (IAF). The first Kfir was delivered to the IAF in 1975, and entered into service in 1976. The fighter...

This Week in History: Israel’s fighter jet is cancelled By MICHAEL OMER-MAN 02/09/2011 Project came along when Israel was suffering from a shaky economy and would have consumed nearly third of country’s military budget. On August 30, 1987, a cabinet resolution passed by only one vote that canceled the first and thus far only attempt at producing an Israeli-made fighter jet, the Lavi. Ordered by the government at the beginning of the 1980s, the Israeli Aircraft Industries (IAI) project was to be a source of technological pride and was expected to make the Israeli Air Force (IAF) more independent, placing...

The Lion That Never Roared CANCELLED: Israel's Arieh Fighter By Gary Rashba Air & Space Magazine, March 01, 2011 Nesher's descendant, Arieh, wasn't built but morphed into what became a prototype, Lavi. It was the Israel Aircraft Industries’ most ambitious project: to design and develop a world-class fighter aircraft from scratch. The Arieh project, as it was known, was a concept design for a warplane on a par with the leading fighters of the day: the McDonnell Douglas F-15 and General Dynamics F-16. Starting in late 1974, a small team of engineers at IAI toiled away on Arieh (“lion” in...

IDF's technological superiority must be defended Despite Israel's leading position in weapons development, an illusion remains that it is dependent on the United States for the qualitative advantage of its weapon systems. By Moshe Arens For many years a basic tenet of Israeli defense policy was that its soldiers must have a qualitative advantage over its enemies in terms of the weapon systems at their disposal. The question was how to achieve that qualitative superiority. Yitzhak Rabin once told me that victory on the battlefield could only be achieved with weapons acquired abroad, and this view was shared by many...

Turkey to design and produce its own fighter jet By ARIEH O’SULLIVAN / THE MEDIA LINE 21/12/2010 Allocating $20 million for initial design study, it spurns an offer to buy Eurofighter Typhoon aircraft; Officials say plan doesn't make sense. Turkey has tossed aside plans to purchase the Eurofighter Typhoon and is pursuing an ambitious endeavor to design and produce its own fighter jet instead. The decision, announced by Turkish Defense Minister Vecdi Gonul, is seen as not only an industrial move, but one aimed at boosting national pride with its “Made in Turkey” fighter. RELATED: Obama: US- Turkish ties 'more...

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...