US President Joe Biden’s administration has informally notified Congress of a proposed $8 billion arms deal with Israel that includes munitions for fighter jets and attack helicopters alongside artillery shells, a source familiar with the matter told the Times of Israel Saturday.
The deal, which was first reported on by Axios Friday, must still be okayed by the US House and Senate foreign relations committees.
The source said that the deal could be partly supplied from current US stocks, but most would take a year or more to deliver. The deal will presumably be the last to be approved by the outgoing Biden administration.
The package — which needs to be okayed by the US House and Senate foreign relations committees — includes AIM-120C-8 AMRAAM air-to-air missiles for fighter jets to defend against airborne threats, including drones; 155mm artillery shells; Hellfire AGM-114 missiles for attack helicopters; small diameter bombs; JDAM tail kits that turn “dumb bombs” into precision munitions, 500-lb warheads and bomb fuzes, the source said.
In late spring, the US held up a shipment that included 500-lb bombs, but these were subsequently delivered. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu complained about this policy in November, saying that such setbacks would soon end, an apparent reference to the incoming Trump administration.
Ain’t they just paying us with our own money?