KC-46A. Source: Israeli Defence Ministry
Tel Aviv has signed a deal with Washington to buy more than a dozen of aircraft as part of an upgrade of Israel’s air force capabilities. This was revealed by the Israeli Defense Ministry on December 31.
Israel is going to buy 12 Lockheed Martin CH-53K King Stallion helicopters and two additional Boeing Co KC-46 refueling aircraft.
The Letters of Offer and Acceptance were signed by the US Defense Department’s Procurement Delegation on December 30.
The total price of the deal is estimated at around USD $3.1 billion. It includes USD $2 billion deal for the helicopters and the $1.1 billion worth agreement for the procurement of two Boeing KC-46 refueling aircraft.
The Sikorsky CH-53K King Stallion helicopter (Photo: Lockheed Martin
The new aircraft are aimed to replace the Israel Air Force’s fleet of Yasur heavy-lift helicopters and Ra’am (Boeing 707) tanker aircraft that are required for long-range missions. The oldest Boeing 707 was built in 1958 and the youngest ones are from the 1970s.
The first batch of helicopters is scheduled to 2026. As for the refueling planes, Israeli Brigadier-General Shimon Tsentsiper had previously claimed that they would not be delivered before 2025. According to Al Arabia report, he said Israel was trying to bring forward the delivery of the KC-46s, and eventually wanted a total of four of them.
In March 2020, the Defense Security Cooperation Agency (DSCA) of the US Department of Defense sent a notification to the US Congress about the planned upcoming sale of eight Boeing KC–46A Pegasus tanker aircraft to Israel through its FMS program. The total cost of the proposed delivery was estimated at $2.4 billion, including equipment, spare parts, training and technical support packages.
On February 22, 2021, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced the signing of Letters of Offer and Acceptance with the United States on the purchase of two Boeing KC-46 A Pegasus tanker aircraft through the US Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program. Thus, together with the December 30 deal, Tel Aviv has finally agreed to get four new tankers.
However, the U.S.-Israeli negotiations faced some challenges. Two weeks ago Washington reportedly denied Jerusalem’s request to expedite the delivery of two KC-46s.
The reason given was the growing backlog of late deliveries to the U.S. Air Force.
However, taking into account the eighth round of negotiations between Tehran and Washington on the revival of the Joint Comprehensive Plan (JCPOA) that started at the end of December in Vienna, the U.S. decision could be a sign of Washington’s readiness to delay the potential Israeli massive air attack on Iranian nuclear facilities.
With a range of 11,830 km and the capacity to carry 207,000 pounds of fuel, the KC-46 can refuel over 64 different types of aircraft and allow dozens of jets to remain airborne for up to 12 hours. The new refueling planes could play a crucial role in carrying out a potential air strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities.
Brigadier-General Shimon Tsentsiper commented on this issue, saying that the current refueling capacities of the Israeli Air Forces are sufficient for its missions.
Israel maintains a relatively large force of aerial tankers. According to open sources, it includes nine old Boeing 707 airliners converted to tanker aircraft and four KC-130H turboprop tankers.
The fate of the Iran’s nuclear developments depends on the ongoing negotiation process in Vienna. The new deal between Washington and Tel Aviv could be a sign of another failure in nuclear talks with Tehran.
Weren’t those KC-46s plagued with problems like leaking, faulty boom, connect and disconnect problems, needing more thrust ( :D ) from F-16s to push the boom in wherever it is supposed to go (!!!) and hold, the boom acting like a scratching device to satisfy the receiver planes itches, shifting center of gravity and so on? Didn’t the US airforce recently say they plan to “repurpose” their KC-46s?
Let them have it. If they can’t do their “massive aerial attack on Iran” using older, tested and proven aircrafts iat least t will make them busy to figure what to do with these and hopefully shuts their mouths for some time!
It’s amazing. A generation before current “specialists” made some aeronautical marvels (and also in other fields). How they managed to become like this with such an awesome mentors?
Happy new year!
Bro, happy new year!
Okay, the Yanuqis trash for trash “people”.
“Marines Should Reduce King Stallion Helicopter Buys Until Tech Problems Fixed, GAO Says” “The Marine Corps should reduce the number of new heavy-lift helicopters it buys until initial operational testing is complete, a new government watchdog report finds. That recommendation is based on a track record of technical problems with the CH-53K King Stallion program that have led to schedule delays and billions of dollars in cost overruns.”
“Israelis Worry About CH-53K King Stallion Engines” “The US Director of Operational Test and Evaluation’s annual report says the CH-53K engine’s performance degrades bellow the accepted minimum after 21 minutes of dust exposure. This is causing great concern in the IAF as it eyes buying the first batch of 20 helicopters.”
“The KC-46 Pegasus has had many issues, including how the boom connects and disconnects when refueling aircraft. Pilots flying certain receiver aircraft, such as the A-10 Warthog and F-16 Fighting Falcon, have reported the need to use more power to move the boom forward to maintain refueling position.”
I also like how they call it “the troubled tanker”.
Surely, they fixed those problems, A.K.A no they haven’t they going to lie anyway.
They getting trash anyway, to even try to attack Iran they going to use their old F-16 and as far as we know S-300 systems can hit, we saw it in Syria. Iran upgraded its S-300 system and builder their own air defense systems.
Let’s be smart here, it is for Zion to kill more kids.
Also, the Wahhabi start the year strong like their kind Zion, “SANAA, Yemen (AP) — An airstrike by the Saudi-led coalition has mistakenly hit a camp of allied Yemeni pro-government forces, killing at least 12 troops, Yemeni military officials said Friday.”
Why would you want to give the world’s master terrorist a good aircraft??? Give them these buckets of firewood
Any attempt for Israel to attack iran is complicated by Russian air defences in Syria. Russia can see IAF strike packages forming up and relay the information to Iran.
The balance of power is shifting in the ME. Iran shot down a US global hawk that was supposed to be flying out of range of Iranian air defences and the Iranians struck a US base with missiles. in both cases the USA didn’t retaliate.
Normally Israel has an intelligence advantage over countries like iran giving them the advantage of surprise. That advantage may be gone with Iranian advances in AD and Russia intel in the mix.
It’ll be interesting to see how this all works out
The big question is would Russia warn Iran seeing as Putin is pro Israel .
Correct. Pootin god is gay boy Bennett…he worship the Zio Jews, the children of Lucifer
Nah.
I wouldn’t say Putin is pro-Israel; more like keeping them alive to prevent the Turks from realizing their dreams.
Iran ties up signifigant US military resources. If Iran were defeated in a war or there was regime change that was USA / Israeli friendly then those resources could be turned toward Russia. Russia benefits more from a strong Iran than a strong Israel.
Putin is not pro Israel. He blocked the Greater Israel and the New Khazaria projects.
“The total price of the deal is estimated at around USD $3.1 billion.”
So they are “buying” this crap with American tax payers money. Israel is happy, US military industrial complex is happy and stupid sheep fund them.
Shows the confidence in themselves having to fast track more tankers. Israel knows they won’t reach Iran until they somehow stop Hezbollah, Syria, Iraq and the Houthis from non stop shitting on them
So this is paid for by American taxpayers . Edit as it wouldn’t allow this part ? US gives Israel a loan to by for the planes which is given to the factories so they make money and pay their shareholders like Theresa May’s husband , The US then writes off the loan so Israel is off the hook and the US taxpayers end up paying the bill so the headline is correct. A Gift to Israel.
Actually, Jordan, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Egypt also take weapons from US but they are not pro-Israel!
It’s really laughable when isrealhell buys weapons from their bitch, USA. The problem is that EVERYTIME the dumbass US taxpayers pays for it….NOT THE HOOKED NOSED VARIETY ZIO SQUATTERS in Occupied Palestine
Perfect opportunity for Iran to create a small diversion to detect and track everytime these aircraft takes off AND THEN TARGET THEM WITH MISSILES. Let’s see how far the terrorist jets fly without fuel