US approves sale of 25 jet fighters to Israel

Wednesday October 01, 2008 17:06 by George Rishmawi - IMEMC & Agencies

Israeli media sources reported that the United States government approved the sale to Israel of 25 F-35 airplanes and the option for 50 more in the coming years - a deal valued at up to USD 22 billion.

A spokesman at the Israeli occupation government embassy in Washington said that the deal is further proof of the special relationship between the U.S. and Israel, as Israel is the first country outside NATO to receive aircraft.

All aircraft would be equipped with either F-135 engines built by Pratt and Whitney, a unit of United Technologies Corp, or F-136 engines developed by General Electric Co and Britain's Rolls-Royce Plc.

The aricrafts are built by Lockheed Martin Corp, who said it welcomes the decision.

"As the first potential foreign military sale of the F-35, this would be an important first step in expanding interest in the Joint Strike Fighter beyond the U.S. government and eight international F-35 partner nations," said Lockheed spokesman Tom Jurkowsky.

Israeli newspaper online Haaretz earlier this month said the Pentagon approved nearly half a billion US dolalrs in three separate arms deals for Israel.

Israeli sources said the aircrafts are needed to enhance Israel’s air-to-air and air-to-land capability.

Meanwhile, military analysts say the F-35 jet fighter is the result of the U.S. Defense Department Joint Strike Fighter program which sought to build a multi-role fighter optimized for air-to-ground functions with secondary air-to-air capability.

The U.S. government has recently disapproved of an intended Israeli strike against the nuclear facilities in Islamic Republic of Iran.