A month ago, it was reported that the main force in which the army intends to invest as one of the lessons and consequences of the war is the Air Force, and that this would include the purchase of new squadrons from the United States. The IDF aimed to use its own budget for these transactions (expecting it to be significantly increased in the coming years) and the large budgets allocated by the Americans for Israeli security purchases in the United States since the outbreak of the war (tens of billions of dollars). The main tools that the IDF intends to acquire are the F-35 ‘Adir’, (the most advanced fighter plane), and Apache helicopters, which have proven themselves to be the most important tools for conducting a campaign both on the offensive side (as seen mainly in the battles in Israeli territory on the week after Oct. 7th), And for evacuating the urgently wounded from the battlefield, in a way that saves their lives.
Naturally, transactions such as these take a long time – both in terms of signing the exact details of the contract, in terms of the production of the crafts in the factories, in terms of their import to the purchasing country, and in terms of their final absorption in the military – at least 5 years, usualy. But the war and the state of emergency caused an hastening of the processes, and it seems that the visit of Gen. Eyal Zamir, Director of the Defense Ministry, to the United States in the past week, conveyed Israeli urgency and helped close the deals. Zamir met in the US with various government officials, and with management personnel at ‘Lockheed Martin’, which manufactures the aircraft; it seems that the deal for the purchase of ‘Adir’ squadrons is going to be signed in the coming weeks, and that Israel will take priority in the production chain so that the first planes can reach Israel within two years from now.
At first, the Americans refused Israel’s request to take precedence in the Apache squadrons production, but yesterday it was reported that the Defense Ministry managed to convince the Americans to withdraw their refusal and put Israel on the top of the waiting list. This may have been due to an explanation of the situation of the army’s helicopter squadrons today, that are working ’24/7′ according to members of the Ministry of Defense – in a way that would make it very difficult to use them if war broke out on the northern front. In any case, we can expect to receive new helicopters from ‘Boeing’ at the IDF in the coming months. The IDF is coming out of the war significantly strengthened, and more prepared for any scenario.
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