Israel’s defence ministry has made it clear that a demand to equip its air force’s future fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighters with Israeli-made electronic warfare (EW) systems will not be subject to any compromise.
Israel signed a letter of offer and acceptance last week in the US to procure the F-35. Further details of the deal will be released as they come to light.
All the nation’s current strike aircraft, including Boeing F-15s and Lockheed F-16s, are equipped with locally developed EW systems.
The issue was brought up again during recent talks with US officials, and presented by Israel as a “no go” item.
Other customer air forces may be prepared to settle for the integral EW systems to be supplied with the F-35.
However, Israel believes that its locally developed EW equipment is necessary because it has to face threats from US-and Russian-made aircraft and systems.
One solution could be to allow Israel to integrate some kind of nationally developed EW equipment as an “add-on” to the baseline system that is being developed through the JSF program.
In January 2010, the US is expected to submit to Israel its offer and final price for an initial batch of F-35s, estimated to cost US$137 million each.
Israel is expected to procure an initial batch of around 25 of the aircraft in the conventional takeoff and landing configuration.
Israel’s defence ministry will have until March 2011 to respond to the offer.
It could sign a production contract by the end of next year, with deliveries expected to follow from 2016.
In November 2009, the US F-35 Joint Program Office said that Israel could receive permission to integrate its own air-launched weapons with the JSF, potentially giving a boost to suppliers including Rafael.