Opening the F-22 to foreign sales is looked at as sales to Japan to counter Chinese desires to expand their sphere of influence. Japanese F-22's would give Japan a much greater air recon ability and say to the chinese "F You" as they wouldnt have anything to counter it. 2 things to really consider when looking at foreign buyers of F-22's 1. extrememly close ally of US. Dependable in good times and bad, wont betray US technology to others. 2. Wealthy country that could afford it. Unfortunately Isreal satisfies the first but not the last. 

ISRAEL – IDF/IAF have “ropadoped” Hez big time!…

HT “Sam Pender”

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RBT and Sam Pender have been carrying on a high level, back channel discussion re the Israeli IDF tactics in this……

Mr Lockheed, fantastic comment. I want you to know that I celebrated here when the first JSF-35 rolled out of Lockheed's plant : ))

Heck of a job that company is doing. Israel is eagerly looking at the JSF too.. Ahh, decisions decisions decisions. Mind you Israel has a very large F-16 force, I'd save the pennies on the JSFs Israel wants for now to go raptor in a heartbeat personally. I hope it will happen, and bump the raptors production numbers too!

Cheers

[...] Hat tip to Saus the gorgeous Israeli blogger. [...]

I believe Israel could rule the skies in WWII vintage American Mustangs.  lol.  The terrorist are no match for even that. I have a small kite Israel could buy to hammer the terrorist if needed.  Lord knows the terrorist couldn't knock it out of the sky.  

Hi Saus, Sorry about the previous multiple email/post thing. Serious: Yes,  Lockheed man, I agree the Japanese should have their fill of the Raptor. Taiwan should get them at a discount. So. Korea? Well, they're being a little too equivocating for my taste. (Sorry lost the link about So.Ko. defending recent actions by No.Ko. in lauching missles on July 5th. The point was that the So.Ko. president rebuked Japan for issuing a warning to No.Ko.) I think the US public is getting a bit tired of South Koreans bitching about the US defending their rich-ass-selves. I am past tired. The sooner we leave So. Ko., the sooner we relieve our Iraqi front and set up a nice Teheran raid.  Not so serious: Unfortunately, before you start the Japan order of the F22's, you're going to have to figure out how you're going to get the fighter to transform into the giant robot mode. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VF-1_Valkyrie  I'd say you're work is cut out for you.  Cheers, peeps! 

Weapons Pr0n…

Smart bullets, brain/machine interfaces, heat rays, exoskeletons, the cool stuff.The Air Force calls the program Barrel Launched Adap ……

Haveil havalim daily edition 08/03/2006…

In Depth: Charles Krauthammer, like a number of pundits I cited earlier, argues that Israel is losing in Israel’s Lost Moment. (also here.) The United States has gone far out on a limb to allow Israel to win and for all this to happen. It has counted …

Hey Adam, no worries.. They get caught up in the spam filter sometimes which is why comments sometimes don't appear. I pull them out whenever I get a chance.

My apologies to any commenters for that occasional annoying delay.

You're darn right the support for Israel from America is strong, very strong, and don't ever forget it. If I were in charge, Israel would have had those jets a long time ago. As a show of appreciation for little Israel being on the front line in the fight against world terrorism, and being on the front line for the past 58 years, I think we need to give you at least one fully equiped super carrier, make it two. Israel needs to start seriously projecting force all over the arab neighborhoods and show those murderous devils what awaits them and their aggression.

Well, since the IDF is doing America’s job for them, the least America could do is give Israel the weapons to get the job done.

Jennifer Griffin said it best on Fox News yesterday: the US, Britain, and the UN want Israel to get the bad guys, but they don’t want to go in until afterwards, when it’s safe to clean up the mess.

Grass-roots America should talk more; her politicians should talk less.

I failed to mention the other countries that would be up for foreign sales of the F-22. Should be singular really, country, as in England. They satisfy both requirements and well, you know, that 'special' relationship still exists. Was is Churchill that quipped '2 people divided by a common language' or words to that effect? Taiwan & S. Korea I dont really foresee buying F-22's. Tiawan is a political hot potatoe and could they really be trusted with the technology secrets? Not to say that they arent good allies but there is a lot of trade/communication/other that goes on between the island and the mainland. South Korea I dont see getting them either. Perhaps due to politics (as in Taiwan; N Korea as opposed to China though), perhaps due to economics or tech secrets. A third thing to considers for Tiawan, S. Korea, and even Israel is the size of the operational theatre. Do they really need an expensive, air dominance fighter with the range of the F-22? In the case of Israel maybe the would want a smaller number to compliment the F-16 (one day F-35's for sure) and F-15 fighters they already have. This to make any long range sorties they desire to undertake (Iran?). I could see this one day, I doubt anytime soon though.

Why doesn't the free and civilized world just pool their resources and write a check to IDF, say to the tune of 80 billion, and hire them to eradicate all the islamic terrorism on the planet? That seems the easiest way to go.

I posted a comment previously and it never published. Perhaps it was "caught up in the spam filter." I am going to try again now (if you find it in cyberspace, I would be honored if you would post it.). Israel made a big mistake by not allowing the IDF to do the initial strategy it wanted to, by blitzing Beirut and sending in an assassination team, taking Hezbollah by surprise and taking out Nasrallah and his seconds-in-command before they had a chance to go underground.  That was Olmert's fault, not listening to the IDF Commanders. So here we are, with a cease-fire which makes Israel look ineffectual. And so many young men lost, G-d forbid they should have died in vain.  If the US would back Israel not only with arms, but with Armed Forces divisions on the ground and in the air, just thing what an awesome force they would be together. And they'd get the job done.

Hi Lady-Light, I had freed that comment when I saw it, and already responded it was excellent thank you! Takes me a while sometimes until I get to them if they get mistakenly filtered : )

Maybe we'll see quiet cooperation in regards to dealing with Iran if it comes to that, obviously you are a well informed Woman as what you described (the Israeli part) seems to have been the initial plan without going into much more detail, it wasn't acted on and we know the results sadly..

Cheers saus

i did not read the entire article but it seems to me that the recall on the ban of the sale of jets to foreing countries might just be a way to nock a couple of numbers of our deficit

Maybe I'm a little late with this but here goes any way…

For Israel to aquire such an aircraft would be two things:1. A wonderfull, beautifull, nearly sensual thing for the whole of the country.2. Nothing short of a miracle, not because of a lack of faith in Israel, but because of the U.S. government's distrust in any thing outside of its borders.

A long time ago I would have tolerated no such thing said about my government, now I can hardly tolerate government.
I served in the United States Marine Corps. for 2 years and was honorably discharged due to "injuries sustained during combat"-I was shot twice in Fallujah.

After what I have seen in that place, after what happend to me and my men in that special Hell. I have no faith in the U.S. government.

The best of luck to Israel. Gods save her people.

-Signed-
                 One Forsaken Sargent

israel needs f22s yesterday,

they’d have already taken care of the iranian nuclear threat by now if america would make quick work of shipping these babies to our best ally in the world.

weve spent 1 trillion in iraq, i think we ought to GIVE israel 10 of these f22s as a “thanks for being our muscle in the middle east” present.

israel´s air force don´t need of more air planes…. they have F-16soufa…..
the beste kind of F´s ind hol world

and they have’it in a large skale

only IRAN
only ahmadinejad
only IRI
only phalastin
yesssssssssssssssssssssssss

Beggars, get aid money from the U.S. and purchase U.S. made goods.

F-22? I see some problems with this. First of all, the F-22 is an air superiority fighter. Those are the most expensive kind of fighters to maintain. If Israel wants to bomb Tehran, they should consider funneling the money into strike fighters like more F-15I and JSF, which they can also get more of and operate cheaper.

As for other purchasers, Japan is a possibility. Korea? They want it, but can they afford it? Taiwan will be a definite no.

Also, I don’t think the US truly trusts Israel after the Lavi fiasco (China and Israel deny that the Chengdu J-10 is based off of canceled Lavi, which contained US tech. Russian sources involved in the J-10 project claim that it was.)