Committee of Experts Recommends That Planning Begin to Produce the ‘lavie’

The Defense Ministry said today that a special committee of military and economic experts has recommended that planning begin to design and produce the “Lavie,” the second generation Israeli-made fighter plane.

If work starts now, prototype models should be available for flight testing about 1985 and the plane should be in use in the Air Force by the end of this decade, the Ministry said. Former Defense Minister Ezer Weizman welcomed the news, but said that as far as he knew the government had decided two years ago to build the plane.

Former Deputy Defense Minister Mordecai Zipori agreed that production had been decided on two years ago.”They are selling us the same bill of goods twice over,” he said.

REASON FOR THE DECISION

The decision to produce the Lavie, instead of purchasing planes abroad or building American-designed aircraft under U.S. license, will not only make Israel largely independent of foreign suppliers but will provide jobs for some 20,000 local workers for many years to come.

To reduce production costs and relieve the Israeli Treasury, the design and production work will be shared with an American firm. A special committee of Air Force and Defense Ministry officials went to the U.S. yesterday, to discuss matters with major U.S. aircraft manufacturers before deciding with whom contracts are to be drawn up.

The Lavie will be powered by a Pratt and Whitney designed jet engine, similar to that in the F-15 and F-16 planes. The engines will be built by a factory at Beth Shemesh near Jerusalem. Overall development costs of the Lavie are estimated at about $1 billion. Defense and Finance Ministry officials said this sum will not come out of Defense Ministry budgets. They declined to say where the money will come from.