Each F 35 stealth fighter jet costs approximately $75 million!
Tel Aviv, July 8 (RHC)-- Israel is preparing to buy its third fleet of F 35 stealth fighter jets in a deal worth $3 billion, which is set to be finalized in the coming months. Israel's Ministry of Military Affairs approved the purchase this week. The additional 25 aircraft, manufactured by U.S. aviation and military giant Lockheed Martin, will increase the number of F 35 jets in Israel's Air Force to 75.
The Ministry claimed that this new agreement will ensure the continuation of cooperation between American companies and Israeli military industries in the production of aircraft parts. Observers say it will also threaten the military escalation in the region -- which is already highly volatile due to Israel's
The purchase of the fighter jets will be financed through U.S. military aid. The U.S. provides Israel with $3.8 billion in military aid every year, allowing Israel to use U.S. government approved financing to obtain major American military hardware.
The United States is one of the main suppliers of arms and military equipment to Israel, also a staunch supporter of the occupying regime, and its decades long aggression against Palestinians.
Israel is the largest cumulative recipient of US foreign aid post world war two.
In 2016, then U.S. President, Barack Obama, signed an agreement with Israel providing $38 billion in U.S. military support over 10 years, including funding for the Iron Dome missile defense system.
In 2022, the United States provided $1 billion in supplemental funding to replenish Israel's stockpile of missile interceptors for the Iron Dome. The United States and Israel also participate in a variety of security related exchanges, including joint military exercises, research and weapons development.
Analysts concur that the unwavering US support for Israel has enabled and emboldened the right wing Israeli cabinet's escalating violence against Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
As Israeli forces targeted the densely populated Jenin refugee camp with both air and ground assaults involving hundreds of troops on Monday, the White House, again, underscored what it called Israel's right to defend itself.
Experts say that response reflects U.S. President Joe Biden's unwillingness to rein in his country's top ally in the West Asia region, Israel, despite a pledge to center human rights in U.S. foreign policy.
