(En - 30 Oct 2014 - News) Ya'alon cancels purchase of 6 US V-22 planes

 

Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon decided to cancel a deal with the U.S. to purchase the advanced vertical-takeoff and landing V-22 Osprey aircraft. Ya'alon's decision was not in line with the Israeli military's stance, and in Israel there is concern the decision may rouse the ire of the U.S.

Israel had agreed to purchase six V-22s, but had not yet signed the contract. The purchase would have made Israel the first country outside the U.S. to obtain the advanced aircraft. Israel was given the green light to purchase the planes in April 2013 during U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel's first visit to Israel. The V-22 was part of a weapons package offered to Israel intended to upgrade its qualitative edge and also included refueling jets and radar systems.

The Israeli military supported the purchase of the V-22, which would have given it long distance transport capabilities and the ability to deploy troops deep behind enemy lines. Ya'alon supported the deal at the time as well -- which was approved again during a meeting between Ya'alon and Hagel a year ago. After flying in one, Ya'alon called the V-22 Osprey an "impressive vehicle that would provide the long arm of the IDF with unique abilities."

The defense minister's change of heart apparently is a result of financial concerns and the summer's Operation Protective Edge. Ya'alon recently decided to purchase a larger quantity of the Namer heavy armored personnel carriers and expand the IDF's precision munition arsenal. The Israeli army and air force chiefs are not expected to appeal Ya'alon's decision.

Some are concerned that, against the backdrop of rattled Israel-U.S. relations, the decision to cancel the purchase will anger the U.S. administration, and be seen as taking the offer for granted, risking future opportunities of acquiring advanced U.S. systems. Ya'alon will have to make the case to the U.S. that his decision was made objectively and based on national interests alone.

Nixing the V-22 coincided with a decision to purchase a second flight squadron of F-35 stealth fighters. All of that may be put on hold however, as the Finance Ministry has recently called for conducting a thorough analysis of Israel's defense needs following Operation Protective Edge before it signs off on any new fighter jet purchases.

The vote on purchasing the second F-35 squadron was supposed to take place on Wednesday at a Knesset ministerial committee on the acquisition of new equipment, but the meeting was delayed last minute until next week. The defense establishment believes that the committee, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, will approve the acquisition of a new flight squadron. The ongoing debate over the defense budget and the tension between members of the current coalition may lead the vote to be delayed again -- which the defense establishment says would be "an attempt by the Finance Ministry to take ownership over procedures and items which it has zero knowledge about."

Officially, all relevant parties refused to comment on the V-22 cancellation. The Defense and Finance ministries said they would make their case for purchasing or passing on a second F-35 squadron at the Knesset ministerial committee.

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(Fr - 28 Oct 2014 - Actu) Euronaval : IAI développe sa gamme de radar ELM 2022

Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) étends sa gamme de radar maritime et propose deux nouveaux radars, dévoilés à l'occasion du salon naval Euronaval qui a ouvert ses portes hier à Paris.

 

-L'ELM-2022ES, basé sur la technologie AESA (Active Electronically Scanned Array) destiné aux avions de surveillance maritime ou de patrouille maritime, le radar peut simultanément faire de la détection de surface et aérienne, y compris de cibles de faibles dimensions.

 

-L'ELM 2022ML destiné à être mis en œuvre sur drone ou hélicoptère léger, il ne pèse que 50 k,il est destiné à des missions parapubliques.

 

IAI développe ainsi sa gamme ELM 2022, un radar déjà vendu à près de 250 unités et en service dans une vingtaine de pays, sur P-3 ou Dash-8 ou Casa.

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(Fr - 28 Oct 2014 - Actu) Air France et Israël Aerospace Industries : Un Accord sur le Taxibot.

Air France a signé un protocole d’accord portant sur l’évaluation du nouveau système Taxibot, développé par Israël Aerospace Industries (IAI) et le Groupe TLD. Ce véhicule semi-robotique est conçu pour le tractage des avions de la porte d’embarquement à la piste et vice-versa. «Son utilisation permet de réduire significativement la consommation de carburant», explique le communiqué…

La compagnie précise que «Le protocole d’accord permettra à Air France d’analyser les avantages techniques, opérationnels et financiers potentiels du Taxibot».

Les trois entreprises formeront un groupe de travail pour étudier l’impact de ce système sur le flux de tractation de gros porteurs à l’aéroport de Roissy, ainsi que les avantages du Taxibot du point de vue écologique comme les réductions de CO² et des émissions de NOx et la diminution du bruit.

 En outre, le protocole d’accord pourra être étendu à des tests de faisabilité, en coopération avec Aéroports de Paris, au deuxième trimestre 2015".
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(En - 28 Oct 2014 - News) IAF's first F-35s set for production

 

The U.S. Defense Department and Lockheed Martin have reached an agreement in principle on the production of 43 F-35 joint strike fighters, including the first two to be built for the Israeli Air Force. The deal is expected to be finalized in the coming weeks.

This will mark the eighth lot of F-35 aircraft to be produced. Production and delivery of the lot will begin in 2016.

"Today's agreement is representative of the program's ongoing maturation," F-35 Program Executive Officer, Lt. Gen. Chris Bogdan said on Monday. "Once production of LRIP 8 aircraft is completed, more than 200 F-35s will be in operation by eight nations. We are glad the government and Lockheed Martin are completing a fair and reasonable contract for the eighth lot of aircraft."

According to Lockheed Martin, the eighth lot of F-35s includes 29 U.S. aircraft (19 F-35As, six F-35Bs and four F-35Cs), the first two F-35As for Israel and the first four F-35As for Japan, as well as four F-35Bs for the United Kingdom, two F-35As for Norway and two F-35As for Italy.

In the first seven lots, 166 F-35s were contracted. As of last week, 115 F-35s have been delivered, Lockheed Martin said.

In 2010, Israel ordered 19 of the state-of-the-art stealth fighter planes at a cost of around $2.75 billion, with an option of increasing the total number to 75. 

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(En - 7 Sept 2014 - News) Canada-bound El Al plane makes emergency landing due to engine failure

 

A Toronto-bound El Al airliner returned to Ben-Gurion International Airport around a half hour after takeoff late Saturday night due to an engine malfunction.

El Al Flight 29, a Boeing 767 carrying 194 passengers, was forced to make a U-turn over the Mediterranean Sea after one of its two engines failed. An emergency situation was declared at Ben-Gurion ahead of the flight's return, with fire trucks and ambulances waiting near the runway.

The flight landed safely and passengers were transferred to another El Al aircraft, which took off for Toronto a short time later.

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(En - 06 Sept 2014 - History) How a Syrian nuclear facility was destroyed by the Israeli Air Force 7 years ago today

Even if Israel has never publicly admitted that some of its aircraft destroyed the facility, some details about the mission have been either disclosed or leaked throughout the years.

Some of them are well described in the book The Sword of David – The Israeli Air Force at War, written by Donald McCarthy.

According to McCarthy, who served in the U.S. Air Force from 1964 to 1968 before becoming a respected and well informed historian, the information for Operation Orchard is alleged to have come from Ali Reza Asgari, an Iranian general disappeared in February 2007, who may have been the source of the intelligence required by the Syrian nuclear site attack.
After gathering the required details, the Israelis planned a secret mission that was launched on Sept. 6 2007, at night.

At least a four F-16I Sufa (Storm) jets and another four F-15I Ra’am (Thunder) aircraft crossed the Syrian border, in bound to the nuclear plant located near the city of Dir A-Zur, in eastern Syria.
McCarthy points out the fact that Syria as well as other Arab countries were equipped with advanced Russian air defense systems, such as the Pantsir-S1 (SA-22 Greyhound as reported by NATO designation), claimed to be immune to electronic jamming. At the time of Operation Orchard, Syria operated twenty nine of these advanced air defense systems, so it remains unclear how the IAF aircraft flew undetected into the night sky out over the Mediterranean Sea, across the Euphrates River and along their route to the nuclear facility.

As explained by McCarthy, according to the most widely accepted theory the strike force included one or more Gulfstream G550 aircraft, equipped with the IAI Elta EL/W-2085 radar system.
Indeed, the success of the operation was largely attributed to effectiveness of the Israeli Electronic Warfare platforms that supported the air strike and made the Syrian radars blind: some sources believe that Operation Orchard saw the baptism of fire of the Suter airborne network system against Syrian radar systems.

This system, combined with the F-15Is electronic warfare capabilities, shut down Syrian air defense systems, providing the other airplanes the cover they needed to hit and destroy the Dir A-Zur nuclear plant.

After the attack, the initial reports stated that the IAF aircraft had almost entirely destroyed the nuclear site, claims that were also confirmed by the comparison of pre and post-attack satellite imagery.

Even if the incident was shrouded in secrecy, Turkish media outlets reported that external fuel tanks were found on the ground not far away from the Syrian border: as reported by Shlomo Aloni & Zvi Avidror in their book Hammers Israel’s Long-Range Heavy Bomber Arm: The Story of 69 Squadron, these external fuel tanks were identified by foreign press as belonging to F-15 aircraft.

Operation Orchard showed the capabilities of the Israeli Air Force, capabilities that were most probably used to carry out an air strike on a weapons convoy and military complex near Damascus, at the beginning of 2013. As done in 2007, on the night between Jan. 29 and 30, 2013, Israeli bombers entered and egressed the Syrian airspace almost completely undetected by the Syrian air defenses: a sign that Syrian radars can do nothing against Israel’s Electronic Warfare systems, most probably further improved to embed the capability to inject malware from F-16s into enemy networks.

(Fr - 6 Sept 2014 - Actu) L'Aéroport de Sde Dov (Tel Aviv) Ferme : 18 000 Logements Seront Construits Sur le Site.

Il i a quelques années, le gouvernement israélien avait décidé, pour des raisons de sécurité, la fermeture de l’aéroport de Sde Dov qui accueille des vols domestiques civils.

Les Compagnies aériennes Arkia Israel Airlines, Ayit Aviation and Tourism, Elrom Airways et Israir sont donc obligées de déménager progressivement toutes leurs opérations à l’aéroport Ben Gourion et notamment au terminal 1 qui abrite les vols domestiques.

La fermeture de Sde Dov était en discussion depuis plusieurs années, suite au développement de la mégalopole israélienne. Initialement, le plan était de déplacer l’ensemble de l’aéroport (la piste ainsi que les installations) sur une île artificielle qui aurait été construite au large des côtes. Il sera remplacé par un ensemble de plusieurs milliers d’appartements, des hôtels et des bâtiments publics.
Il est prévu de construire 18.000 logements sur le site. La suppression de Sde Dov a levé des restrictions en vigueur sur les hauteurs sur les bâtiments voisins, qui, pour des raisons de sécurité, avait été décidée
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