What new F-35 jets mean for Israel’s air force

By Ben Caspit, al MONITOR

On July 26, Israeli history was made in Dallas, Texas, when “Israeli” fighter aircraft model F-35, “Stealth,” took off on its maiden flight and successfully passed an examination of its overall system. The traditional rollout ceremony of the aircraft had been held June 22 with the participation of Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman. The arrival of the first planes to Israel is planned for December.

The Israeli air force will be the first air force outside the United States with an operational Stealth squadron. In the United States, the Navy has already made the F-35 serviceable and announced its Initial Operating Capability status. The US Air Force will reach this same milestone in the near future.

The timing of the arrival of the Stealth aircraft to Israel is especially auspicious. A high-level Israeli military figure told Al-Monitor last week on condition of anonymity, “Batteries of surface-to-air S-300 missiles produced by Russia have already reached Iran.” He added, “Although they are not yet operational, we expect them to become operational in the near future.”

The arrival of the F-35 to Israel — simultaneously with the supply of S-300 missiles from Russia to Iran — preserves Israel’s qualitative edge over Middle East skies. “In most cases, the F-35 is able to elude the radar of the S-300,” a high-placed military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “This is a big challenge for us, but we are up to it. The Stealth [aircraft] was built for exactly this purpose and will give us freedom of movement even against this new development.”

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) in general and the air force in particular are more concerned with the possibility that some of the S-300s — missiles that cover a territory of more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) each — will find their way from Iran to Syria or Lebanon. “Such a scenario would pose a major strategic change for us,” said a senior Israeli military source on condition of anonymity. He told Al-Monitor, “We will do everything possible to avert this.” There is also the worry that the Iranians will learn the system, try to produce it by themselves and then transfer the know-how to Hezbollah or Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. Israel is hoping that this will not happen.

One way or another, the Israeli air force is waiting impatiently and excitedly for the new Stealth aircraft. The fierce debate that was held surrounding the capabilities of the aircraft and were detailed in an earlier article in Al-Monitor have come to an end. “This plane will upgrade the entire air force by a complete technological generation,” said a senior IDF source. He told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “This is a transition from fourth-generation fighter jets to fifth-generation, and even more than that. Missions that we carried out to date with a double-digit number of planes will be able to be executed with a low single-digit number of planes.”

The reason is simple: “When you embark on an important strategic bombardment,” a senior Israeli military source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “you need aircraft that will carry out the shelling, other planes to protect the first ones from interception and yet other planes to provide protection from surface-to-air missiles [SAM]. But the F-35 carries out all these tasks by itself, with tremendous effectiveness. It has small radar footprint and is not threatened by most SAMs. It is a totally different world.”

Some high-ranking Israeli air force members have already flown simulation flights on the sophisticated F-35 simulator system. “We are in a completely different league,” one of them told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. “The flight included dogfights against an octet of advanced, non-F-35 aircraft, and the Stealth [aircraft] won hands down.”

Conversations with their counterparts in the US Air Force also greatly encouraged the Israeli pilots. According to the Israelis, it was impossible to wipe the smiles off the faces of the Americans after a week of trial runs of the Stealth jets at a US Air Force base. The data was excellent, all the planes were fit for service and available, the hits were good and the results were perfect. The expression “almost too good to be true” exactly describes the Israeli air force’s view of the Stealth aircraft.

The Israeli air force assessment is that the Stealth planes not only will bring new capabilities, but will also “pull” all the other air force planes forward and bump the entire corps up. The reason: the visual range ability of the Stealth. These aircraft fly within formations and carry a system that enables each pilot to see the entire picture of the surrounding arena from his pilot’s booth. Other planes that are not F-35s can also be included in the F-35 system, thus sharing its tremendous advantages. In this way, the capabilities of hundreds of F-15s and F-16s already owned by the Israeli air force can undergo great improvement, too.

Another advantage is the tremendous number of simulator practice lessons that are available on the Stealth aircraft. “The training concept behind the F-35,” an Israeli military party told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity, “is to spend 50% of training practice on real flights and 50% in flight simulator practice. This is a revolutionary change. Today, only 8% of flight practice in Israel’s air force takes place in a simulator. The Stealth will greatly bump up this number. This translates into great savings with regard to maintenance of the planes and flight fitness of the pilots. It will also compensate for the expense of the Stealth’s spare parts. In general it is ultimately supposed to lower maintenance costs of a Stealth squadron, perhaps to the level of an F-15 squadron,” an Israeli air force source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity.

The bottom line is that the Israeli air force will absorb 33 F-35 jets over the next two years. Air force commander Maj. Gen. Amir Eshel would have wanted more jets, but this number will suffice for now. A special combat doctrine for these aircraft is already being hammered out. Even the rumors that the F-35s have a more limited weight-carrying capacity (for armament) than their competitors have been disproved. When the F-35 flies while reducing radar footprint (maximum stealthiness), it can carry two tons of bombs and another four air-to-air missiles, exactly like the F-16. When it does not reduce its radar footprint, the F-35 is capable of carrying six tons of bombs and four missiles, exactly like the F-15.

“That is more than enough for our needs,” an air force source told Al-Monitor on condition of anonymity. A senior party in the air force said, also on condition of anonymity, “At the first stage of warfare, when the risk of anti-aircraft missiles is at its height, the Stealth [aircraft] have a weight-carrying capacity of an F-16. In the second stage, after the missile threat will be eradicated, they upgrade themselves to the weight-carrying capacity of an F-15. In any case, at this stage we don’t need stealth abilities above Gaza, so the planes can carry six tons of ammunition there from the first minute. This is a fantastic capability. All in all, this is what we have been dreaming about in the Israeli air force all along.”

August 4, 2016 | 12 Comments »

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  1. Wow! Now we know many new things about the F-35 deal we didn’t. Maybe there is more info available and understandable coming to this site and we all be beneffited with it.
    Thanks to Ted Belman and Bear Klein

  2. HERZLIYA, Israel — Israel is working with Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office to maximize autonomy of its planned stealth fighter force, including its own command, control, communications and computing (C4) system, indigenous weaponry and the ability to perform heavy maintenance in country rather than at predetermined regional overhaul facilities.

    Once the first F-35Is arrive here in December, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will begin installing a tailor-made C4 system on top of the central avionics embedded in the joint strike fighter.

    “It’s open architecture, which sits on the F-35’s central system, much like an application on your iPhone. So it doesn’t change anything in the aircraft itself, but it gives the Israel Air Force (IAF) the most advanced and adaptable processing capabilities with relative independence of the aircraft manufacturer,” said Benni Cohen, general manager of IAI’s Lahav Division.

    In an interview Monday, Cohen said IAI is already producing the C4 system for installation in the first planes due here in December. “It introduces a new level of freedom for the IAF, as it paves the way for additional advanced capabilities to be embedded in the F-35I in the future,” he said.

    As for weaponry, the Israel Air Force and state-owned Rafael Advanced Systems Ltd. have been working with Lockheed Martin to adapt the Israeli Spice 1000 electro-optic standoff precision strike system for internal carriage on the F-35.

    “We’re still in the developmental process to make sure the weapon fits the airplane and the airplane fits the weapon,” said Mike Howe, Lockheed’s F-35 director of business development for Israel.

    Similarly, Lockheed Martin is engaged with Cyclone Ltd., a wholly owned subsidiary of Elbit Systems, on external fuel tanks to augment range beyond the 18,500 pounds of fuel carried internally by the F-35. At a later phase, Israeli defense and industry sources say they hope to develop with Lockheed Martin — and with the consent of JSF partner nations — conformal fuel tanks to significantly extend the range while in stealth mode. http://www.defensenews.com/story/defense/2016/04/04/israel-seeks-greater-autonomy-f-35-fighter-force/82619792/

  3. According to “Defense News,” Israel has received an exemption from the protocol requirements of the F-35 program requiring foreign air forces to do most of the maintenance work on the planes in Lockheed Martin’s logistics centers. The Israel air force will be able to do most of the maintenance work in Israel, except for heavy maintenance, due to concern that a war could break out exactly when some the planes are outside Israel. A logistics center for maintenance of the Adir planes is now being built at the Nevatim base for this purpose. This center will have direct access to Lockheed Martin’s information system.

    http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-israel-to-double-attack-range-of-f-35-stealth-fighter-1001068513

  4. An efficient combat aircraft fleet requires independence at all levels of maintenance.
    Many questions as to Israel’s independence in maintaining the aircraft arise, for example : Will Israel be allowed and get the knowhow to maintain the aircraft engines at depot level, the same way it does today with the F-15 and F-16 engines? If not, will there be an intermediate level of engine maintenance in Israel? The same goes for the avionics (radar, self protection suite, mission computer, etc.). Also, will Israel be allowed to integrate its home made weaponry (internally and externally carried) into the aircraft via the avionic bus,or buses(to do that, Israel would have to receive from the US some of the aircraft software infrastructure knowhow and tools). The same goes for the electronic warfare suite. What will be the level of spares parts that Israel will be allowed to hold in its stores?
    I am not sure that the picture is as rosy as the media are trying to paint.

  5. Changes from standard F-35A

    A senior Israeli air force official stated, “the aircraft will be designated F-35I, as there will be unique Israeli features installed in them.” The United States initially refused to allow the integration of Israel’s own electronic warfare systems into the aircraft’s built-in electronic suite. However, Israel planned the introduction of a plug-and-play feature added to the main computer to allow for the use of Israeli electronics in an add-on fashion, and to fit its own external jamming pod.[50] The IAF dispatched two officers to the US where they discussed issues involving the integration of Israeli technology into the fighter with Pentagon and Lockheed Martin officials.[35] In July 2011, it was reported that the U.S. had agreed to allow Israel to install its own electronic warfare systems and missiles in its F-35s in the future.[51] In 2012 Lockheed was awarded a contract to make changes to the first Israeli F-35s to allow the installation of Israeli electronic warfare equipment produced by Elbit Systems.[52][53] This equipment will use “specific apertures… in the lower fuselage and leading edge”.[54] Israel also plans to install its own indigenously-produced guided bombs and air-to-air missiles in the F-35’s internal weapon bays.[50] Benni Cohen compared the Israel Aerospace Industries Command and control system to an iPhone App that would run on top of the central avionics.[55]

    Israel Aerospace Industries will manufacture the outer wings of Israel’s F-35s.[53] IAI may also play a role in the development of a proposed two-seat F-35. An IAI executive stated, “There is a known demand for two seats not only from Israel but from other air forces. Advanced aircraft are usually two seats rather than single seats.”[56] The Israeli F-35s helmet-mounted displays will also be manufactured in Israel.[57] This is part of the Offset agreement provided to Israel, in spite of the purchase being entirely funded by American aid.[58]

    An IAF official stated that while the stealth of the F-35 in its current form will be overcome in 5–10 years, the aircraft will be in service for 30–40 years, and that is the reason that Israel insisted on the ability to make its own changes to the aircraft’s electronic warfare systems.[59]

  6. @ Lev:Do political writers or commentators have the technical expertise to evaluate a plane they have never seen in person or with a simulator? I am skeptical.

    Perhaps the people who have been studying it and working on it for a decade would know more? At least I hope so. The IAF has been an excellent air force until now. Hopefully they will not have made a major mistake. A lot of lives are riding on it.

    Defense industry commentary on this has included http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/israel-plans-to-buy-over-100-f35s-02381/

  7. Opossed to this optimistic Ben Caspit article on he F-35 plane, there was recently a very pesimistic article on the same plane, written by Caroline Glick. I tend to believe Caroline. Maybe Ted Belman could help us clarify the truth about the F-35, so we know what can we expect, one way or the other. Thanks Ted

  9. @ lsatenstein:Obama became President in 2009.

    Israel and the USA signed a deal for it in 2003.

    2003

    In 2003, Israel signed a formal letter of agreement, worth almost $20 million, to join the System Development and Demonstration (SDD) effort for the F-35 as a “security cooperation participant” (SCP).[1]
    2006

    The Israeli Air Force (IAF) stated in 2006 that the F-35 is a key part of IAF’s recapitalization plans, and that Israel intends to buy over 100 F-35A fighters at an estimated cost of over $5 billion to replace their F-16s over time.[2] Israel was reinstated as a partner in the development of the F-35 on 31 July 2006, after its participation was put on hold following the Chinese arms deal crisis.[3]

    On 16 November 2006, Yaakov Katz of the Jerusalem Post reported that if no jet fighters were delivered to Israel between the last batch of F-16s in 2007 and the first F-35s in 2014 then the IAF would decline in numbers as older fighters wore out and were retired.[4]

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning_II_Israeli_procurement

  10. I understood the main problem was that the US retains operation control over these planes with the ability to ground the planes against Israel’s will.

  11. This plane and much more was part of the Obama deal for Israel.
    As a reminder. The Republicans (Your favourite forked tongue Donald) want to slash all USA foreign aide, to Israel and to other American Recipients. Had Bebe tried to sign a deal with the Republicans in power, they would have received half.
    Google the website or contact ILTV.TV. They posted details of the deal.

  12. If this article is accurate that is good news about the F35 Adir as opposed to the bad reports we have read. So hopefully the issues were fixed.