Israel and the Just So Failed

The comments section with the religious, faith-based, model-airplane-glue sniffing fan-base is funnier than the article.

Here is something fun too. This is from a 2007 U.S. brief to Israeli Journalists about the F-35.


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Things can be difficult. Consider 1999. It must suck to be thrown trash after a promise like this:

Friday January 19 4:20 PM ET
Israel Promised New U.S. Aircraft

By BARRY SCHWEID, AP Diplomatic Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a farewell gesture, the Clinton administration Friday promised Israel that it would be among the first nations permitted to purchase the most advanced U.S. Air Force jet fighter, the radar-evading F-22.

Built primarily by Lockheed Martin, it will replace the F-15 Eagle as the Air Force's top fighter jet. Still in development, the F-22 Raptor will have stealth technology and a unique ability to cruise at supersonic speeds without using afterburners.

The pledge was confirmed by State Department spokesman Richard Boucher after President Clinton wrote in an open letter to the Israeli people that delivery of the new jet fighter was part of his effort to help ``protect and enhance your security.''

The promise is ``consistent with the U.S. commitment to maintaining Israel's qualitative edge in the military area,'' Boucher said.

Apparently, because of the secret stealth technology, Congress would have to give its approval for the sale of the F-22 to Israel or any other country. And it was not immediately clear whether the president's promise could bind the incoming Bush administration.

Meanwhile, the United States and Israel signed a formal agreement that will phase out U.S. economic aid to Israel by 2008. Israel is the largest aid recipient.

Half of the assistance will be recovered by Israel as military aid. Israel is also the largest recipient of U.S. military aid.

The agreement was signed at the State Department by Ambassador David Ivry of Israel and Assistant Secretary of State Edward Walker.

``It reflects the unshakable commitment of the United States to Israel's security and to maintaining Israel's qualitative edge,'' Ivry said. ``Only a strong Israel can make peace.''

Israel volunteered reduction and ultimate elimination of U.S. economic aid, and the cutback from $1.2 billion a year began in 1999, with $120 million trimmed. The reduction will continue at that pace until all economic aid is eliminated by 2008.

At the same time, U.S. military aid will be boosted $60 million a year until it reaches $2.4 billion by 2008. Most of the U.S. military aid is spent in contracts with American munitions companies.

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-Time's Battleland - 5 Part series on F-35 procurement - 2013 
-Summary of Air Power Australia F-35 points
-Bill Sweetman, Aviation Week and the F-35
-U.S. Government Accounting Office (GAO) F-35 reports
-F-35 JSF: Cold War Anachronism Without a Mission
-History of F-35 Production Cuts
-Looking at the three Japan contenders (maneuverability)
-How the Canadian DND misleads the public about the F-35
-Value of STOVL F-35B over-hyped
-Cuckoo in the nest--U.S. DOD DOT&E F-35 report is out
-6 Feb 2012 Letter from SASC to DOD boss Panetta questioning the decision to lift probation on the F-35B STOVL.
-USAFs F-35 procurement plan is not believable
-December 2011 Australia/Canada Brief
-F-35 Key Performance Perimeters (KPP) and Feb 2012 CRS report
-F-35 DOD Select Acquisition Report (SAR) FY2012
-Release of F-35 2012 test report card shows continued waste on a dud program
-Australian Defence answers serious F-35 project concerns with "so what?"
-Land of the Lost (production cut history update March 2013)
-Outgoing LM F-35 program boss admits to flawed weight assumptions (March 2013)
-A look at the F-35 program's astro-turfing
-F-35 and F-16 cost per flying hour
-Is this aircraft worth over $51B of USMC tac-air funding?
-Combat radius and altitude, A model
-F-35A, noise abatement and airfields and the USAF
-Deceptive marketing practice: F-35 blocks
-The concurrency fraud
-The dung beetle's "it's known" lie
-F-35's air-to-air ability limited
-F-35 Blocks--2006 and today
-The F-35B design is leaking fuel
-F-35 deliveries
-ADF's wacky F-35 assumptions
-Gauging performance, the 2008 F-35, Davis dream brief
-Aboriginal brought out as a prop
-Super Kendall's F-35 problem
-LM sales force in pre-Internet era
-History of F-35 engine problems
-Compare
-JSF hopes and dreams...early days of the Ponzi Scheme
-The Prognostics
-2002--Australia joins the F-35 program