September 16, 2020 | International, Aerospace, Land
TEL AVIV: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked President Donald Trump today for 12 Boeing V-22s, another squadron of F-35s to bring the total to 75, and the very early delivery of two Boeing KC-46As at the White House today.
The request was made during a day of extraordinary meetings as President Trump, the Prime Minister of Israel and the Foreign Ministers of Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates were to sign what are being called the Abraham Accords, meant to normalize relations between the Arab states and Israel.
The new weapons are meant to keep Israel's qualitative edge after the U.S agreed to sell the F-35 to the UAE and Teheran rattles its homemade swords, furious about the new era between Israel and some Gulf states.
Hours before hosting the signing of historic peace agreements between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, President Trump doubled down on the idea of selling F-35s to the UAE.
“I personally would have no problem with it,” the president told Fox and Friends this morning, “I would have no problem in selling them the F-35.”
The Israelis, who understand the US political system well, are likely to press Trump to put the new sales in motion before the November elections to minimize the chances they might fall victim to a change in power in Washington.
“The Israeli request will be based on an accelerated process aimed at getting all the approvals before the November presidential elections” one Israeli source told BD.
The request is also likely to include a replacement for Israeli Apache AH-64A combat helicopters that are planned to go out of service in 2025. Israel, one source says, will also ask for “increased numbers” of bunker buster bombs, usually thought to be designed to strike Iranian nuclear sites.
On top of all that, the Israelis may seek an advanced communication satellite, a source told Breaking D.
The request for a new weapons package would be in addition to the existing Foreign Military Financing agreement with the US. The current agreement, signed in 2016, increased US assistance from $ 34 billion in the decade to $38 billion between 2019 and 2028.
Why is Israeli seeking so much new gear? It's not, Israeli sources explain, because of the prospective sale of F-35s to the UAE, but because they believe this deal will open a new arms race in the region and they want to stay head of it. Israel is also concerned about the possibility of leadership changes in some Gulf countries
The assessments for what's needed were drawn up when the IDF formed a special team headed by Maj. General Tomer Bar, the IDF's head of its planning and force building department. This team is reviewing the operational demands of some of the IDF ground forces units.
https://breakingdefense.com/2020/09/israel-seeks-8b-arms-deal-at-white-house-f-35s-v-22s-kc-46s/
December 21, 2022 | International, C4ISR
The added resiliency and higher bandwidth will allow the agency to share intelligence more quickly, particularly in disconnected regions.
November 19, 2024 | International, Aerospace
Trump touted his administration's renegotiation of the Air Force One contract with Boeing as an example of how he could cut defense costs.
November 30, 2018 | International, C4ISR
By: Mark Pomerleau Sophisticated adversaries have been leveraging the electromagnetic spectrum to create significant dilemmas for U.S. and allied forces, say officials, and transformative efforts are needed to deal with an increasing complicated threat. “China is outspending us probably 10 to 1 on trying to figure out how to use and manipulate the electromagnetic spectrum. Russia showed us what they're going to do with it in their incursion into Ukraine ... Electromagnetic warfare, electronic warfare at the maneuver level,” Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said at the annual Association of Old Crows symposium held Nov. 28 in Washington, D.C. “We haven't designed ourselves to fight that fight. They have demonstrated that they are not only willing, but they're [also] capable of deploying and employing electronic countermeasures at the ground and maneuver level. It is a reality that we are going to have to adjust to.” The capabilities forces need For the Army, it's not going to be one thing, Col. Mark Dotson, the capabilities manager for electronic warfare at the Cyber Center of Excellence, said at the symposium Nov. 27. There have to be layered capabilities and effects, each increasing range and sensing capability. “We're still sorting through that,” Dotson said, noting the need to develop from the current tactical focus all the way to the strategic level. “We're trying to expand our scope and get into what are those other things we need. Do we need artillery delivered capability? Do we need loitering munitions? Is it going to manned or is it an unmanned aircraft?” In addition, Dotson said, the Army needs systems integrating EW, cyber and signals intelligence, and the service has started generating requirements working with the Intelligence Center of Excellence and the Cyber Center of Excellence. “I think SIGINT and EW go hand in hand, so us not sharing going forward and working like a team like we do now makes no sense,” Col. Jennifer McAfee, Dotson's counterpart for Terrestrial and Identity at the Army Intelligence Center of Excellence, told C4ISRNET in a November interview. McAfee added that the team is also joining up with the other centers of excellence to ensure that when they are pursuing requirements for airborne or ground systems, the Intelligence and Cyber centers are plugged in to leverage EW expertise and not create duplicative efforts. Geolocating solutions Others across the joint force have expressed the desire for more decoys, physical or non-physical, to confuse or confound enemy systems. “It's network electronic warfare from air, sea and land; it's smart warfare combined with advanced decoys, whether they're physical decoys or cyber decoys out there; drones, swarms and jamming drones,” Col. John Edwards, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing, said at the symposium. “Things that go out there to where an air defense operator cannot distinguish between what is cyber and what is real out there.” Such aerial systems can be used to either overwhelm or distract air defenses, allowing strike aircraft to penetrate, or take the point jamming the air defenses and thus assuming all the risk leaving the more expensive and manned systems in the rear. On the ground side, officials have also discussed the need for more investments in decoys. Lt. Gen. Stephen Fogarty, commander of Army Cyber Command, told reporters in August that big investments needed to be made in this area. He envisioned forces being able to drop a decoy emitting strong signals off a truck at a fork in the road, thus drawing enemy attention to it. “Now we're presenting multiple dilemmas to the adversary,” he said. One of the difficulties of modern warfare is all jammers and sensors emit some kind of a signal in the electromagnetic spectrum, meaning they can be geolocated and targeted. This means if an enemy wants to use it, they have to take into account a risk calculus in revealing their position. “Jammers are emitters, emitters are targets. I think that's something we really ought to be thinking about,” Selva said. “If you're going to operate in an electronically dense environment ... the tools actually reveal their position." Similarly, decoys can be used to throw adversaries off the trail of friendly forces or distract from other items forces might want to protect. ”If I have something like a counterfire radar, that's really important to me. Maybe what I want to do, again, is push an alternate threat to the adversary," Fogarty said. In these complex environments, Selva said forces need to be able to identify, localize and characterize the jammer. If that's possible, then forces can decide what to do with it. If the answer is they want to kill it, they have to have a tool to kill it. “If you can't do all three of those things, the jamming is very effective,” he said. https://www.c4isrnet.com/electronic-warfare/2018/11/29/what-will-forces-need-in-complex-ew-environment