Demands from the United States government that Israel halt production of the Israel-designed Lavi fighter jet, scheduled for its maiden test flight in September and slated to be built with massive U.S. financial help, stem from American plane producers, according to Prof. Yosef Singer, president of the Israel Institute of Technology in Haifa.
Singer, himself a noted aeronautical engineer, also told an Israel’s Radio interviewer Monday that the opposition could cause serious long-range damage to Israel’s aircraft industry.
Singer said that United States attempts to halt production of the Lavi, which is to use an American Pratt and Whitney engine, were legitimate from the American viewpoint but he insisted that Isral should stand firm on demands that the Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) continue its development and production plans for the high speed fighter jet.
Singer noted that the earlier Israeli development and production of such sophisticated military weaponry as the Gabriel missile and the Kfir fighter plane turned out to be a spur to the development of many of Israel’s high-technology export products.
He said, “We should look on production of the Lavi as an Israeli national project and not from the viewpoint of American industry which is interested in fostering its own aviation industry.” American experts have questioned Israeli production cost figures for the Lavi, which they contend would make the plane unprofitable to produce.
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