via Defense.gov
Given many shared threats in the region, including Iran, Syria, terrorism, border issues and other challenges, the president wanted Panetta “to look at ways not just to protect Israel’s qualitative military edge, which is a key principle of American policy, but to increase the capabilities of Israel in a significant and meaningful way and in doing so increase the capabilities of key partner nations,” he added.The MV-22 buy doesn't make sense for Israel and I wonder if they actually pushed for the buy or if it was pushed on them.
The series of sensitive bilateral negotiations took place over the past year and resulted in agreements, reached also through consultations with Congress, to approve requests by Israel for advanced radar for Israeli jet fighters, antiradiation missiles, KC-135 refueling tankers, and a to-be-determined number of V-22 Ospreys, the official said, a capability that the United States has never sold to any other country.
The United States is making these capabilities available for Israeli purchase, the official said, adding that U.S. funding for Israel’s security needs has been unprecedented, even in an austere budget environment.
“This year the United States provided $3.1 billion in foreign military financing to Israel, the highest the United States has ever provided,” he said. In addition, the United States provides about $300 million in missile defense to Israel, the official noted.
Elsewhere in the region, in 2010 Saudi Arabia agreed to purchase 84 F-15 tactical fighters in a deal worth $29.4 billion, the official said, and the first F-15s have rolled off the line in St. Louis and are undergoing flight testing at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.
During Hagel’s trip, the UAE is expected to move forward with the purchase of 25 F-16 Block 60 Desert Falcon fighters manufactured by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. The expected value of the sale is $425 billion, the official said.
“As part of these sales,” he added, “the United States is agreeing to deploy standoff weapons to Saudi Arabia and the UAE.” Such smart weapons can navigate to their targets and are more precise and can be fired at further distances.
The MV-22 is for want of a better word, a boutique capability that really doesn't fit into Israeli defense schemes. Many tout its capability to insert special ops personnel deep in enemy territory but recon of enemy defenses are better carried out by other assets. If you're talking about strikes or raids by Israeli special ops then again, destruction of enemy installations are better done by other means.
Additionally the Israelis are big users of the CH-53 and have made no bones about their desire to acquire the CH-53K as soon as it rolls off the assembly line.
I think that this sale is simply cover for fighters to Egypt and the continued selling of high tech arms to other countries in the Middle East.
Unfortunately for Israel, Arab countries will soon achieve NEAR qualitative equality and will still have numerical superiority which will endanger the Jewish state. All it will take is a madman to again unify the Arabs and the only choice the Israelis will have is to either see their country destroyed OR to go nuclear.
The ground is being laid for the next Middle Eastern war between Israel and its neighbors and from the look of the sales to Arab countries it will be a bloody affair.
