Israel to buy US F-35 fighter jets
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The Ministry of Defense and the Israel Defense Forces will acquire a third squadron of F-35 aircraft from the United States, thus expanding the fleet of fighters to 75 aircraft, the press service of the country’s Ministry of Defense reports.
Israel will buy 25 Lockheed Martin aircraft, worth about $3 billion, and the purchase of the fighters is financed by US aid funds, the report said.
As part of an initial agreement between governments, Lockheed Martin and engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney pledged to involve the Israeli defense industry in the production of aircraft components.
Israel as clarifies Reuters, became the first country outside the US to purchase the F-35. In May 2018, the air force commander said that Israel was the first to use this aircraft in combat.
In 2016, US President Donald Trump criticized the fifth-generation F-35 fighter-bomber program as too expensive. Trump made such a statement on the day when US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter was in Israel on the occasion of the delivery of the first two F-35s there. Shortly before Trump was elected President of the United States, the Pentagon agreed to purchase the ninth series of 57 F-35s for $6.1 billion.
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