The Israel Defense Force has accumulated a deficit of 580 million shekels (nearly $330 million) as a result of expenses related to controlling the Palestinian uprising in the administered territories, according to the Israeli daily newspaper Ha’aretz.
Quoting senior military sources, the paper reports that a considerable percentage of the funds earmarked for developing alternatives to the costly Lavi fighter plane are being used to cover day-to-day expenses.
The IDF will discuss the budgetary problems in a long-range plan to be presented to Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin in early April, the paper said.
Contrary to the IDF’s expectations, the Finance Ministry has not reimbursed the IDF for expenditures related to the uprising. Some 80 million shekels ($45 million) appropriated for the IDF this year will not be transferred until next year.
According to the sources, the deficit is similar in magnitude to the sum designated by the long-range plan to cover the purchase, through 1992, of two diesel-powered submarines from West Germany.
The plan to order the submarines from West German shipyards was put on hold by the chief of staff last month. But the delay is now being reconsidered at Rabin’s express orders, following complaints by the Israeli navy.
The two Dolphin-class submarines will cost approximately $450 million to produce. The decision to purchase them was made more than a year ago, after nearly 10 years of discussion of IDF procurement plans.
The navy is also due to get three new Saar V-class missile boats, to be built in the United States. There are no shipyards in the United States building conventional submarines.
The Israeli navy is thought to have three British Vickers 206 submarines that are at least a decade old.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
