via Israel Today.
Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon last week visited the Lockheed Martin assembly factory in Texas and called the new F-35 fighter jet "a cornerstone in building" the Israeli Air Force of the future.Forgive me but that's a big kettle of fish to swallow.
Israel is one of the first countries on the list to receive the F-35 when America begins shipping to its foreign allies.
Like the F-16 before it, Yaalon said he had no doubt the F-35 would be a great asset and "give the Israel Air Force great operational abilities."
In a related development, the Pentagon has made the decision that F-35 pilots will use a helmet developed jointly by Rockwell Collins Inc. and Israel's Elbit Systems Ltd.
The decision knocked out of competition a helmet being developed by a British defense contractor. The Pentagon chose to go with the Rockwell-Elbit helmet following significant improvements and a lower price tag.
This helmet deal has left me scratching my head. For weeks we've heard that progress is being made but that issues remain. Additionally we heard that the second helmet by BAE was kicking butt and that it would be a very nice (if evolutionary) backup plan in case the revolutionary helmet by Rockwell and Elbit went tits up.
Then the Israeli Defense Minister shows up, tours the F-35 facility and out of nowhere we hear that the backup helmet is being canceled.
This smells to high heaven.
First the S. Korean retired Generals are bought off and lobby for Lockheed Martin, and now we see an Israeli defense corporation getting a huge gift right after a visit from a high ranking dignitary.
Who gets what? The F-35 program gets the press that the well respected Israeli Air Force is sold on the plane and an Israeli company gets a piece of an overpriced scheme.
Everyone wins except the taxpayer. Additionally I have to wonder about this business model. How can prices go down when you have so many companies are seeking to profit off the bits and widgets that are being built worldwide?
Critical Mass is approaching. If sequestration doesn't end (and I don't believe it will...the Republicans can't afford to not kill Obama Care and then let spending go up) then the F-35 WILL be the next target of cuts. They can't cut personnel fast enough and if they accept voluntary outs the Marine Corps will empty.
They're between a rock and a bad place.
Israel's Elbit has a piece of the helmet (at half a million each) along with Rockwell Collins, located in Cedar Rapids. (It doesn't work yet -- problems with latency, jitter and resolution.)
ReplyDeleteBut wait, there's more.
There's Israel's guarantees of more than US$4B of aerospace work in exchange for their purchase of 20 F-35s valued at US$2.7B, without any other industrial investment in the program has caused aerospace analysts to question what benefits countries who have invested in the F-35 program will receive. And of course the purchase would be funded entirely by the military aid the United States gives Israel.
The F-35 sale has been cited as one reason why there is little public pressure from Israel to stop the U.S. arms sale to Saudi Arabia which could amount to $60 billion, $80 billion if you include other Gulf states.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II_Israeli_procurement
In other words, don't look for a resolution of the Iran "crisis" any time soon.
yeah, pretty interesting that 20 aircraft are as the Israeli Defense Minister says, the backbone of the force! they won't even be enough to knock out one Iranian reactor. they're bought and paid for...the Israeli's join the Marine Corps in being another bitch for Lockheed.
DeleteEric Palmer has a piece on South Korea.
ReplyDelete"Corruption claims with S.Korean fighter selection"
http://elpdefensenews.blogspot.com/2013/10/corruption-claims-with-skorean-fighter.html
And why does South Korea need stealth? The only scenario I see is a first strike on NorKor nuclear facilities, which could be countered by a vast NorKor conventional artillery barrage against nearby Seoul. So what's the point?
oh i read ELP everyday. i wanted to post more of the article but Google Translator doesn't handle Korean very well...as a matter of fact to my surprise it does a better job with Mandarin.
DeleteYeah, EP did the translation somehow. All I remember in Korean is "anyahashamicah" --hello.
DeleteThere was a great footnote there on 'stealth-lite' -- or (possibly) reduced stealth for export. There were two contracts to LM for it, 2003 and 2007. I've got a record of them.
"Everyone wins except the taxpayer."
ReplyDeleteA big piece of the Lockheed sales pitch is offset agreements with buying countries where they get a piece of F-35 production. "Billions of dollars worth of new jobs." That's to them, not to U.S. workers. And then you add in the effect on the U.S. military personnel budget of these obscene expenditures for aircraft, at $200 million a pop.
Lockheed has done this before, with F-16. For example, the US ambassador to Poland helped Lockheed do the offset, jobs in manufacturing from U.S. companies, in exchange for F-16 sales to Poland. And then he bragged that his efforts had resulted in offsets for twice the value of the F-16 sale.
"Everyone wins except the taxpayer."