IAF Opts for Ultra Sexy ‘J Model’ Hercules to upgrade the workhorse fleet

Via JPOST, the US Congress has been notified of an impending sale to the IAF seeking approval. I speculated last year about Israel’s procurement plans involving the Hercules, and shortly thereafter the multi-year TEFEN procurement plan was released. So far, Tefen appears on track with upgraded US Patriot PAC3 batteries, equally a new round of funding appears to have been agreed upon for upgrades to the Arrow2 ABM, and now news of the transport component for TEFEN involving the J Model Hercules. Much of this would have been sealed up with Israeli Defense Minister Barak spending time at the Pentagon this past week, preceded by IDF Chief Gen Ashkenazi the week before.

Actually, at the time personally I thought Israel would be picking up the slightly older H model of the US Air Force’s most venerable workhorse, my thinking was the IAF might opt for some slightly used transports since ours are already so old any how, and the new totally re-worked J Model is in very hot demand.. We may have bumped a few customers if this order is approved, these Js are very slick comprising some tasty electronics & high tech gear, and could end up costing nearly 2 billion, hoooah! So this is not your father’s olds.. er I mean troop transport.

‘Feel like making War’

A highlight of TEFEN was the re-emphasis on full warfare capabilities in hardware pickups, as opposed to massive emphasis on just killing terrorists over the last decade. Stuff like this will come in very handy indeed if we are forced to invade & conquer places like Lebanon, or our ‘Peace Partners’ the Syrians in the next few years. Maybe they will let us keep the Golan in exchange for giving them back Damascus. if it’s Land for Peace, I advocate first securing even more land, that way we can get even more peace!!! I always knew I was a lefty at heart..

Meanwhile between ABM, Transports, and J35s.. Lockheed is becoming a one stop shop for Israeli purchases, Israel’s top notch RAFAEL defense industries is also working closely with the company on all sorts of goodies, I love it.. Maybe we can convince them to roll a few more F-22s onto the assembly line for us, no one has to know – they evade radar after all

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