The CH-53K although it costs more than twice that of the Chinook is twice the helicopter?

via Jerusalem Post.

“What does the State of Israel want from this helicopter? Will it be used for skirmishes near our border or for special operations and extracting forces and pilots from the range like Iran,” he told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday, adding “how are you going to get [special forces] Sayeret Matkal to their operations?” The speed of the helicopter is also an important aspect that must be considered especially when they are given a mission to rescue a downed pilot, Ben-Shalom said.

Funding for the procurement is to come from part of the Memorandum of understanding signed in September 2016 between Jerusalem and Washington that would provide Israel with $38 billion in military assistance over the next decade.

Frank Crisafulli, sales director international, heavy-lift helicopters at Sikorsky is quoted by Flight Global aviation website as saying that while the acquisition price of the CH-53K King Stallion with a unit cost of around $87 million will be higher than that of the Chinook with a unit cost of $38.55m. the CH-53K is “literally twice the helicopter.”

Story here. 

I don't know if its always been this way and I'm just paying attention now, but the US military seems to pick winners and losers in the foreign military sales system.

If you read this article it's a thinly veiled advertisement for the CH-53K.

But what has me spinning is that the once proud IDF seems to be buying into hype instead of buying gear that they need at the best price possible.  Did the conditions the Obama Admin put on Israel foreign assistance contain strings that meant they had to buy what we wanted instead of what they needed?

The prime example is the F-35.  They're doing all kinds of modifications to that jet that are going unpublished and unknown to the wider public.  Instead all we hear is that the Israelis are operating this world beating jet...not the fact that they're modifying beyond recognition into a standard that no one but the IAF will know about.

Now we have the Heavy Lift contest and we're seeing the IDF being steered toward the CH-53K when they would probably be well served with slightly modded CH-47s (I'm thinking the enlarged sponson tanks and Israeli avionics) that would be drastically less expensive!

I'll be keeping an eye on this.  It will reveal much about our Military Industrial Complex.  Is it possible that it's even more insidious than I imagine?

Side note:  Where are they getting this 87 million dollar unit price number from.  Last I looked they were 138 million each.