Biden administration set to greenlight $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel | CNN Politics
edition.cnn.com
The Biden administration is close to approving the sale of as many as 50 American-made F-15 fighter jets to Israel, in a deal expected to be worth more than $18 billion, according to three people familiar with the matter.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/14095378

Biden administration set to greenlight $18 billion sale of F-15 fighter jets to Israel

All of this after “getting angry” with Israel

  • @LovingHippieCat
    2•8 months ago

    Don’t get me wrong, this is a shitty thing to do. But there are two important facts to keep in mind. First, that this has been something they’ve been working on for months so it’s not like biden and his administration went from telling bibi that he needs to protect civilians and try to come to a deal with hamas and have a ceasefire to selling him these jets in the same talk. Second, these jets have to be built. It’ll take at least 5 years for them to be built and anyone who is aware of how slow our government builds jets knows that that could be extended. If anything this isn’t shitty because it’s giving Israel jets, its shitty because it looks like a fucking bribe from the Israelis to try and make sure the US continues to support them.

    • @[email protected]
      2•8 months ago

      Per your first point this has been anticipated as part of regular procurement and retirement process. The question was if F15EX was going to be a thing or not. Had it not been, Israel would have likely gone with more of F35I.

      Israel has around 60 F15s right now. The newest airframes among that are already 25 years old. The airframes to be replaced by this order are from the 80s. 40 years is a pretty typical lifespan. So this order was coming up regardless of Hamas doing their thing recently.