The US Congress and the Pentagon pushed through a massive $1.2 billion arms deal for Israel in record time designed specifically to help the Israeli Air Force to replenish its war stocks, which had fallen to what was described as `strategically dangerous lows' after the Lebanon War.
The shopping list itself is quite interesting....10,000 JDAM tail kits for high precision guidance of bombs , which are designed for use with the GBU-29-32 bunker busters; 4,000 laser-guided Paveway II munitions kits; more than 11,000 Mk-84 and Mk-82 bombs; 2,000 heavy fortifications-penetrating BLU-109 bombs; and 50 GBU-28 5,000-pound guided bunker busters, along with lots of jet fuel and spare parts.
The Israelis will also receive 500 Sidewinder AIM-9M, and 200 AIM-120C (AMRAAM) medium range air-to-air missiles.
Three separate packages were approved for replacement missiles, munitions, bomb kits and support gear totaling $799 million, and the fourth package for up to 132 million gallons of fuel estimated at $308 million. The Israelis will get a lot of it immediately, and some over the next five years.
What's even more interesting is how quickly the requests and the normal oversight were accomplished. Part of that is due to long-time friends of Israel in the Pentagon and on the House Armed Services Committee like Duncan Hunter. But I have a feeling that Israel's recent raid on Syria and the successful penetration of the `unjammable' Russian Pantsyr 1E missile defense system supplied by Putin to Iran and Syria has something to do with this as well.
In a possibly related piece of the puzzle, one of my sources is reporting an exodus of Russian technicians from Iran, especially from the Bushehr nuclear reactor. If true, this could be merely another attempt by the Russians to extort more cash out of the mullahs to complete the Iranian nuclear installations....but it could also mean that something's up, and the Russians have either been warned or are simply taking no chances.
Also, Senator Hillary Clinton announced today that she's planning on co-sponsoring a bill barring the White House from spending any money to wage war in Iran, and requiring President Bush to come to Congress for approval before any war with Iran, something he's not likely to get given the current composition of Congress.
Is the president attempting to forestall this by equipping Israel to deal with Hezbollah and Syria while the US takes out Iran's nuclear facilities? Or are the Israelis being equipped to do the job themselves?
Stay tuned...
The Israelis will also receive 500 Sidewinder AIM-9M, and 200 AIM-120C (AMRAAM) medium range air-to-air missiles.
ReplyDeletethis obviously bodes for some new military tactic LL is not familiar with. imo, these would be a waste for air-to-ground. iran has four(4) planes that can fly. the hezzys & hamass don't have any. that leaves the syrian air force. does syria even have two hundred(200) planes? that can fly? which goes back to my beginning point. why would israel shoot ten(10) missiles at an enemy plane? do you need that many missiles to take out a radar site? there must be some new military tactic LL is not familiar with.............
Louie
ReplyDeleteRussia is upgrading Iran's air force. Once the deal with Russia is completed and the Iranian pilots are trained on the new systems, the Iranian air force will be as good or better than any thing Israel or the US currently have. For the sale and any training that the Iranians need to be completed will probably take about a year. So a year from now the Iranian air force will probably be on par with the US and Israel. These side winder missles are probably being sold to Israel so that they will have a fighting chance against the Iranian air force.
Hi Louie ,
ReplyDeleteI think the sidewinders are just a replenishment of stocks.
Hi Poster
I hope you're correct about the Russians spending billions to train Iran's pilots and give them some more shiny new toys.
You might want to do a little reading and find out what happened the last time they did that, with Syria and Egypt. And a number of those planes actually had Russians flying them instead of Arabs when they were shot out of the sky by the IDF!
As for Iran's `upgraded airforce 'being the equal of the US'...ummm, sorry, I don't agree.
Our navy pilots would wipe the floor with the ones that managed to get airborne.
Russian technology is vastly overrated, as we saw when the Israelis penetrated the `unjammable' Russian made missile defense sytems in Syria last week with relative ease.
All Best,
ff