U.S. Continuing ‘supply Effort’ to Maintain Mideast Balance of Power

Robert J. McCloskey, State Department spokesman, declined comment today on reports that the United States was sending 12 more Phantom jets to Israel. “I don’t want to speak to that directly, and this is consistent with our policy,” he said referring to the administration’s policy of quiet diplomacy. But he noted, as he has before, that the U.S. was “continuing our ongoing supply effort” to keep the Mideast balance of power from tipping against Israel, and stressed that deliveries were not being made specifically in response to recent shipments of Soviet arms to Egypt. Administration officials disclosed yesterday that the United States is delivering 12 more F-4 Phantom jets to Israel under a previously unannounced deal made last fall. Eight of the supersonic fighter-bombers have already reached Israel. In addition, six reconnaissance models of the F-4 will be delivered this year. The new deliveries will bring to 80 the number of Phantoms the U.S. has agreed to sell to Israel since the June, 1967 war. Israel is reported to have lost nine Phantoms in combat over Egypt or by crashes. Administration officials said yesterday that a new Israeli request for more F-4s was under consideration. Yesterday’s disclosure was viewed here as more than a “progress report” on Phantom deliveries to Israel which the Nixon administration began in the fall of 1969.

Its timing coincided with reports that nearly 200 Soviet fighter-bombers have been sent to Egypt since the first of the year. In recent weeks Moscow is reliably reported to have supplied Egypt with a small number of advanced MIG-23 fighter-bombers, a warplane said by some authorities to be superior to the Phantom in speed and other areas of performance. The disclosure that Phantoms continue to flow to Israel was seen as a reassurance to Israel and a warning to the Arab-Soviet allies that the U.S. will not allow the balance of military power in the Middle East to tip in favor of the Arabs. The Nixon administration agreed to supply six more Phantoms last July to replace Israeli combat losses and subsequently agreed to provide 18 more by December, 1970. The 12 jets now being delivered represent a further commitment. The latest deliveries will still leave Israel’s Air Force numerically inferior to the Egyptian. But military experts are virtually unanimous in rating the Israel Air Force bastly superior to Egypt’s owing to the quality of Israeli pilots and ground maintenance personnel. According to knowledgable sources, Israel’s Air Force will have by the end of next month more than 70 Phantoms; more than 100 A-4 Skyhawk close support attack planes which fly at subsonic speeds; 50 supersonic Mirage fighter-bombers; 20 Mystere-IV fighter-bombers, also French-made, and about 150 miscellaneous older fighters and training jets.