이스라엘이 F-35 Lightning II 19대를 총액 약 27억5천만불에 구입하는 조건으로, 이스라엘 IAI 社와 Elbit 社를 통해 약 40억불
규모의 F-35 부품 제작 물량을 주겠다고 미국이 제안했다는 AW&ST 의 기사를 소개합니다.
이스라엘이 지속적으로 요구하고 있는 자국産 EW (Eletronic Warfare) 및 항전장비를 장착하는 문제와는 별개로 미국이 제안
했다는 얘기입니다. 또한 기사를 참조하자면, major structural repair 를 제외한 대부분의 창정비 역시 이스라엘이 자체적으로
할 수 있도록 해 주겠다는 내용입니다.
한편으론, 여전히 이스라엘 군 내부에서 F-35 JSF 구입에 대한 우려와 함께 기존 F-15, F-16 의 교체주기가 임박하는 가운데
F-15SE 구입도 검토해야 한다는 내용도 포함되어 있습니다.
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Cost Strikes Lightning
IAI, Elbit subsidiary to get JSF Lightning II work
Aviation Week & Space Technology, 07/26/2010
Author : Alon Ben-David
The U.S. and Israel are near agreement on the sale of a sharply reduced number of conventional takeoff and landing F-35s, owing to the ballooning cost of the system.
Israel now intends to buy 19 in the first batch, with options for two or three. Originally, 75 were planned, with an option for 25 more, according to Israeli and U.S. officials.
At 19 aircraft, the average unit cost is $144 million. To sweeten the $2.75-billion sale, Washington is offering $4-billion worth of F-35 work. Though a deal has yet to be reached on Israel’s requirement of domestically integrating its electronic warfare (EW) package, there has been some progress.
The U.S. is unwilling to release the source code for the F-35 software, and the parties are seeking another way to satisfy Israel’s requirement. At added cost, a compromise was struck to address Israel’s insistence that F-35 maintenance be conducted domestically. “All maintenance could be conducted in Israel, excluding major structural repairs,” says an industry source.
Amid some dissent in the country’s defense establishment, the workshare agreement is likely to sway the Israeli defense ministry toward the deal. Primary beneficiaries include Israel Aerospace Industries, which will produce wing parts for the F-35, and Cyclone, an Elbit Systems subsidiary, which will produce helmet-mounted display systems and airframe parts.
Though the deal appears inevitable, a debate in Israel’s defense leadership during these final throes of talks with Lockheed Martin underscores the pressure put on the company by rival Boeing’s strategy of offering a stealthy retrofit kit for existing F-15 customers.
Some senior officials in the Israel ministry worry that the high cost of the JSF could result in dangerous force-level reductions. They suggest a review of alternatives including the F-15 Silent Eagle, a kit designed to add a new digital EW system and carry weapons in conformal fuel tanks, improving survivability of the aircraft. “It is a huge price to pay for a very small number of aircraft,” a senior defense source tells Aviation Week. “Although they clearly provide very advanced capabilities, the F-35s are very limited in their payload capacity. Furthermore, looking at our aging fleet of F-15s and F-16s, many of them are to be decommissioned in coming years [and] the JSF deal could eventually result in a dangerous reduction in the total number of our fighters.”
ⓒ Lockheed Martin