Good quote:
“The ingenious, automated ALIS system that Lockheed Martin has built will be very efficient and cost-effective, but the only downfall is that it was built for countries that don’t have missiles falling on them,” an IAF program officer told Defense News.
Wrong on the first part. ALIS has not proven cost-effective as it doesn't actually work as designed. Right on the second part.
Israel gets about $3B per year in U.S. taxpayer credits for this kind of activity. Also, since it is a U.S. Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deal and not a Joint Strike Fighter Partner Nation deal, they, like Japan and S.Korea have significant industry offsets written (guaranteed) into the deal.
And this jewel.
Once the first F-35Is arrive here in December, state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) will begin installing a tailor-made C4 system on top of the central avionics embedded in the joint strike fighter.
“It’s open architecture, which sits on the F-35’s central system, much like an application on your iPhone. So it doesn’t change anything in the aircraft itself, but it gives the Israel Air Force (IAF) the most advanced and adaptable processing capabilities with relative independence of the aircraft manufacturer,” said Benni Cohen, general manager of IAI’s Lahav Division.
In an interview Monday, Cohen said IAI is already producing the C4 system for installation in the first planes due here in December. “It introduces a new level of freedom for the IAF, as it paves the way for additional advanced capabilities to be embedded in the F-35I in the future,” he said.
So for Israel, they get everything they want as opposed to Joint Strike Fighter Partner Nations who stated they could have no such control and only "best-value" for "potential" workshare.
Behold: the gullible JSF Partner Nations.
It will be interesting when Israel gets buyer's remorse going. Paying for a faulty aircraft design that has much less utility than an F-15 or F-16.
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