The Israeli Air Force will receive two new fighter squadrons - one F-15IA squadron and one F-35 squadron, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced, UNN reports.
Two new fighter squadrons for the Israel Defense Forces: The Ministerial Procurement Committee has approved the plan by the Ministry of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces to acquire two new squadrons of F-35 and F-15IA fighter jets worth tens of billions of shekels
As The War Zone writes, this will bring the total number of F-35I squadrons to four, and a second F-15IA squadron will also be added. Although the exact number of aircraft has not been disclosed, the Israeli Air Force has recently increased its fighter arsenal in the form of 25-aircraft squadrons. The publication writes that this will almost certainly happen here as well, which would provide the service with an additional 25 examples of each type, for an eventual inventory total of 100 F-35Is and 50 F-15IAs.
"The scope of the deals is estimated at tens of billions of shekels and includes the integration of the squadrons into the Air Force, comprehensive support, spare parts, and logistics," the Israeli Ministry of Defense said in a statement.
In a statement on May 3, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu mentioned the two new squadrons. He also noted that as part of Israel's investment in military independence through domestic arms production and defense technology, the country would "develop groundbreaking Israeli-made aircraft."
He provided no further details about this project, although a fighter jet similar to the failed Lavi project, or more likely, some type of Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) drone, is possible, as are various types of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance (ISR) platforms. The publication notes that at least one secret Israeli drone, designated RA-01 and used for covert missions, is known to exist, and further developments in this direction should not be ruled out.
Now that the procurement has been approved by the Israeli ministerial committee, the Director General of the Ministry of Defense has authorized his procurement delegation in the US to begin signing agreements with US government and military officials "in the near future."
Neither the delivery schedule nor the estimated cost of the deals were specified.
In his statement, Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz explained that the procurement of the two squadrons was driven by "operational lessons learned from the campaign against Iran, [which] require us to accelerate our force build-up."
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