Israel officially received today the first of 33 F-35A ‘ADIR’ joint strike fighters ordered for the Israel Air & Space Force (IAF). The new aircraft will be one of two F-35A fighters expected to arrive in Israel before year’s end. The advanced capabilities maintained by the new fighter jet will provide means Israel will be able to continue maintaining air dominance in the region, despite the growing threat of advanced air defenses.
Of the original nine partner countries – Australia, Canada, Denmark, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Turkey, the United Kingdom and the United States – six have received their first jets and had pilots and maintainers in training. Israel, one of three Foreign Military Sales (FMS) customers, received its first F-35A today. Japan, the second FMS customer, is also expected to take delivery of its first jets this year.
Suppliers in all nine of the program’s partner countries are producing F-35 components for all aircraft, not just those for their country. And in addition to the Fort Worth plant, there are two Final Assembly and Check Out (FACO) facilities outside the United States: one in Cameri, Italy, where the first jet was delivered in December 2015; another facility in Nagoya, Japan, will produce the first jets for Japan. Israeli suppliers are responsible for parts of the helmet display system and also produce the outer wings for Lockheed Martin.
Israel became the first country to select the F-35 through the United States government’s Foreign Military Sales process on Oct. 7, 2010. The Israeli Air Force gave the F-35 the Hebrew name Adir which, according to the Times of Israel, denotes awesomeness in modern Hebrew.
Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman seen in the cockpit of Israel’s first F-35, tail number 901 during the official rollout ceremony at Ft. Worth, June 22, 2016. Photo: Lockheed MartinThe aircraft rolled out today is the first of 33 F-35A fighters ordered by Israel at an average cost of US$110 million per plane. The first two will arrive in Israel in December 2016. Aside from the two that will arrive in Israel in December, six ADIRs are expected to arrive there through 2017. The Nevatim Airbase in the Negev Desert will serve as the home for the first Adir squadron. Delivery of the remaining 31 will be completed by 2021. Israel also received a generous industrial cooperation package worth $5.4 billion, of which Israeli industries have already received $775 million orders.
Unique adaptations have been made to facilitate the integration of Adir with the IAF operational fleet. One of the most critical elements was the introduction of command, control and communications applications necessary to operate the new fighter within the IAF indigenous Command and Control environment. The development of this application has been completed at IAI’s labs and is now in production for the aircraft destined for Israel.
As first batch of 19 aircraft Israel is expected to receive will be the standard model operated by the US Air Force and other partner nations, it is expected to carry a limited weapon’s load comprising of two Boeing GBU-31s (JDAM) and two Lockheed Martin GBU-12s (Paveway laser guided bombs) or two Raytheon AMRAAM beyond visual range (BVR) air/air missiles. All will be carried internally.
Further adaptations expected to mature for the second batch will include the integration of certain ordnance types operated by the IAF, such as the Rafael Spice 1000 guided weapons. The more complex task is the integration of weapons carried in the internal weapon bay, thus maintaining full stealth capability of the aircraft. Other types can be taken as external stores, must also go through the lengthy integration process.
from Defense Update: http://ift.tt/28PosCW
via Defense News
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