Israeli F-15I jets fly in formation. (Israeli MoD)
UPDATE: Thursday’s planned meeting between Biden and Bennett has been postponed following the attacks in Kabul. It is unclear exactly when that meeting will now take place.
TEL AVIV: When Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett meets with US President Joe Biden, he plans to ask the United States for a special increase in Foreign Military Financing dollars specifically to procure an advanced version of Boeing’s F-15 fighter jet, military sources tell Breaking Defense.
Israeli sources said that the request has been shaped with two options. The first is an agreement from the US to allow Israel to use allocated funds before the original schedule of the FMF agreement; the second would be a special allocation increase in the overall FMF agreement.
Both options were discussed yesterday at a meeting between Bennett and Biden’s teams, sources added. The Israelis do not expect an answer in the White House meeting today between the two leaders, but are looking to leave Washington with an indication that the deal will happen.
The goal, the sources said, is to secure enough funding to purchase 20-25 F-15IA jets, as well as updated its existing F-15I fleet of 25 planes by replacing the full avionic suite, including radar and main computers.
FMF dollars are money that is set aside in the US budget and given to partner nations, but can only be spent on buying American military equipment. Under a 10-year deal signed in 2016, the US pledged to provide $33 billion in FMF grants, plus another $5 billion in missile defense funding, between fiscal years 2019 and 2028. While that averages out to $3.3 billion in general FMF every year, the money does not need to be distributed evenly and, in theory, could be accelerated for special purchases.
The desire to upgrade the F-15 fleet comes as military planners want to diversify their options for potential conflict with Iran. While the F-35 is the primary fighter for Israel’s military, the F-15 can carry significantly more weaponry.
While always twitchy about Iran, Israeli officials right now particularly sensitive about how it may need to deal with Tehran in the future. Iran’s new president, Ebrahim Raisi, is viewed as a hardliner who is filling top government spots with individuals who are under sanction by the US. This summer has seen a series of provocations from Iran, including a suicide drone attack on a commercial ship that left two dead.
Meanwhile, Lebanon is teetering, and Iran seems eager to fill any power void there. The US withdrawal from Afghanistan and the near-total Taliban takeover has unsettled the entire region. And against that backdrop, American negotiators continue to pursue a new version of the Iran nuclear agreement, something Israel is openly against.
Bennett is also expected to use the White House meeting to push Biden to stop negotiations with Iran, as Israeli officials believe Tehran is dragging out the negotiations as a ploy to buy time while it moves its nuclear weapons program forward.
Hence, a Thursday comment from Israeli Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kohavi was notable: “The progress of the Iranian nuclear program has led the IDF to accelerate its operational plans and the recently approved defense budget is earmarked for that.”
Syrian Concerns
While publicly staying polite, Israeli officials behind the scenes are increasingly frustrated with what they view as the Biden administration’s unwillingness to act decisively on military matters, both with Iran and Syria.
Along those lines, Bennett is expected to also push Biden for greater action in Syria. Sources this week tell Breaking Defense that Israeli intelligence organizations believe the government of Bashar al-Assad still maintains a stockpile of chemical weapons, with an unknown stock of nerve gas spread across several of its military compounds.
Officials here say this information was briefed to their US counterparts. But the Israeli officials were dismayed that rather than an open declaration that Syria is in violation of UN regulations, the US State Department instead issued a statement accusing the Damascus government of carrying out a chemical attack in a former rebel-held area in 2013.
“We continue to call upon the Assad regime to fully declare and destroy its chemical weapons program in accordance with its international obligations,” that statement read — a tacit acknowledgement of the fact Syria likely still has chemical weapons, but not the full effort sought by Jerusalem.
The Syrian Foreign Ministry, in its response, said that the statement clearly reflects “the US continued hostile method against Syria which comes to cover its failure in Afghanistan and its support to terrorism that Syria encounters.”
“The government of the Syrian Arab Republic reaffirms once again that it stands against the use of that kind of weapons in any place, at any time and under any circumstance and by any side as it is an issue that opposes Syria’s principles and morals,” the statement added.
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