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Al-Ahed Telegram

"Israel" to back down on special F-35 demand

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Source: Press TV, 19-03-2009

The US has rejected a request to incorporate ‘Israeli' electronic warfare know-how into Lockheed Martin Corp's F-35 Joint Strike Fighter.

Incorporating ‘Israel's' system into the model being built for it "is not going to happen," Jon Schreiber, who heads the F-35 program's international aspects for the Pentagon, told Reuters on Tuesday.

"I think our system will meet their requirements with some tweaking, and I think they're starting to come around to that realization themselves," he added.

The F-35 fighter is a radar-evading single-engine aircraft. It is being developed by the United States and eight international partners including Britain, Italy, the Netherlands, Turkey, Canada, Australia, Denmark and Norway.

Under the Bush administration, the Pentagon approved the sale of 25 F-35 fighter jets to ‘Israel' with an option for another 50. Tel Aviv plans to benefit from the state-of-the-art warplane and replace its older F-16 fighters.

Senior ‘Israeli' military officials had maintained that their F-35s must incorporate electronic warfare technologies developed by the ‘Israeli' Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

Schreiber said the refusal is mainly based on the high cost of integrating the electronic warfare suite. "They have pretty tight budget constraints and we're attempting to fit their requirements into their budget."

"We expect to get a revised letter of request from [‘Israel'] within the next month or so," and anticipate that a government-to-government deal will be concluded by the end of this year or early next year, he stated.


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