Get Ready, Iran: This Is Israel's Master Plan to Upgrade Its Military

Dave Majumdar

Security, Middle East

 Think Super Advanced F-15 Strike Eagles and V-22 Osprey tilt-rotors.

Israel is asking the United States for a squadron of advanced F-15 Strike Eagles and V-22 Osprey tilt-rotors as part of a “compensation package” for lifting American sanctions on Iran. The package would be worth more than $3.1 billion according to reports.

Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya'alon presented Tel Aviv’s “shopping list” to U.S. defense secretary Ashton Carter last week when he visited Washington D.C. if reports are accurate. The arms package would help maintain the Jewish state’s qualitative edge over its Arab neighbors.

According to Flight International’s Arie Egozi, the Israelis didn’t just ask for ordinary F-15s. Instead, the Middle Eastern nation is asking for Boeing’s privately funded F-15SE Silent Eagle derivative which includes a number of radar cross section (RCS) reduction features and internal weapons bays housed inside the jet’s conformal fuel tanks. In previous years, Boeing officials would claim that the F-15SE had a frontal RCS that is equivalent to an export configuration Lockheed Martin F-35 Joint Strike Fighter. However, other defense and industry sources dismissed such assertions.

Israel wants to incorporate its own systems into the F-15SE version that it would buy. Those would most likely include the aircraft’s electronic warfare systems, helmet mounted cueing systems and communications suite among other items. It would probably also incorporate a host of Israeli-made weapons such as the Python-5 missile. However—if the United States holds to past practices—the aircraft will likely retain a U.S.-made radar—either the Raytheon APG-63 (v)3 or APG-82 (v)1 active electronically scanned array radars.

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