The IDF’s equipping plan has been approved

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With a delay of several years and after a long delay, today (Sunday) the Political-Security Cabinet approved the dollar outline for the huge deals that will allow the defense establishment to purchase refueling planes, helicopters to replace the storms, fighter squadrons, armaments and IT and IT projects. The 99th, after struggles between the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Defense regarding the financing outline, when the budget outline proposed by the Ministry of Defense was finally accepted.

Photo: IDF Spokesman

This is a principal approval for the payment of nine billion dollars, about seven of them from US aid funds approved in the US, and another 2.4 billion based on a loan recycling loan taken by the defense establishment in 2014 to finance evasive aircraft. The loan was taken at the expense of future aid funds. $ 200 million in interest that the defense establishment has pledged to absorb in its budget.

The approval in the Cabinet is in fact the approval of the dollar outline for the Chief of Staff’s multi-year plan, “Tnufa.” The defense establishment will be able to present in the coming weeks and months to the Ministerial Committee to equip each of the projects individually for final approval.
The first project to be brought to the approval of the Ministerial Committee, probably in the coming days, is the procurement of refuelers for the Air Force. This is the purchase of Boeing KC-46 refueling aircraft for the Air Force, which will replace the Air Force’s 60s (Boeing 707) aircraft.

The second order of urgency is an alternative to the “Yasur” helicopters that arrived in Israel in the 1960s and 1970s.

Helicopter V-22 // Photo: API
Thanks to the miraculous work of the Air Force technical orders their lives have been extended time and time again, but the State Comptroller has determined that extending their lives beyond 2025 is life threatening. The claimants to the crown are the CH-53k helicopter, or in short the “K” made by the Sikorsky company purchased by the Lockheed Martin company, and the Chinook helicopter, made by the Boeing company. Each of the companies hopes that the defense establishment will choose its helicopter, and Defense Minister Bnei Gantz has expressed a desire to purchase the V-22 helicopter as well. It was also approved to purchase at least one fighter squadron, and of course armaments are required for the Air Force, and these deals will also be presented later to the Ministerial Committee.

It is estimated that from the moment the projects are presented to the Ministerial Committee for Equipping and then the signing of the procurement contract with the Americans, it will take at least three years until the first aircraft arrive in Israel. In the case of the refuelers and helicopters that will replace the storms, one hour earlier is fine.

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