The head of Israel’s largest defense contractor argued forcefully against proposals to abandon the Lavie, Israel’s second generation jet fighter, on economic grounds. David Ivri, chairman of Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI), told reporters that a decision to terminate the project would cost more than $200 million in cancelled contracts.
This sum, he stressed yesterday, would not come from U.S. military aid funds but from the Defense Ministry’s already shrunken budget. Replying to suggestions that it would be cheaper for Israel to buy its new jet fighters abroad than build them at home, lvri said the estimated cost of the Lavie and of the U.S. F-16 is about the same — between $13.5 and $15.5 million per plane. But over a period of time, the economic advantage would go to the Lavie, he said.
Ivri, a former commander of the Israel Air Force, conducted a group of military correspondents on a tour of the IAI plant. He said a prototype of the Lavie will be ready for test flights next September. The prototype will be a fully equipped model except for the ground support systems, which will be built once the plane goes into production.
Opponents of the Lavie say IAI would have to sell at least 300 planes to the Air Force in order to break even. Orders of that magnitude are unlikely, given the present budgetary constraints.
In another defense-related development, Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin disclosed that the Soviet Union has supplied Syria with additional submarines. He said in a radio interview that those recent acquisitions added a new dimension to Syria’s naval strength and represented a considerable increase in the quality and quantity of the Arab armed forces.
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