Special to WorldTribune.com

JERUSALEM — Israel could reduce the next order of the Joint Strike Fighter.

A senior official said a Cabinet panel rejected a decision by Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon to order up to 31 F-35 fighter-jets. Instead, the ministerial committee on defense procurement limited the next Israeli purchase to 15 fifth-generation aircraft from the United States.

“We are not the Defense Ministry’s rubber stamp,” Strategic Affairs Minister Yuval Steinitz said.

Ya’alon agreed to a second batch of F-35s during a visit to the United States in October 2014. Under a preliminary agreement, Ya’alon told the U.S. Defense Department and Lockheed Martin that Israe would procure between 25 and 31 F-35As, expected to begin arriving in 2018.

But the Cabinet panel on defense procurement, which met four times on JSF, blocked Ya’alon’s agreement. Officials said ministers warned that an F-35 without indigenous subsystems would not meet Israel’s long-range air combat requirements and drain the defense budget.

The ministers were quoted as saying that JSF should be reviewed in 2017 after the first aircraft arrives from L-M. Israel has sought to finance JSF from the annual $3.2 billion in U.S. military aid.

Israel has been the first international customer of JSF, the price of which was not set. In 2010, the Jewish state ordered 19 F-35As in a purchase estimated at $2.75 billion.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who leads the panel, was said to support Ya’alon’s recommendation. Officials said Netanyahu could make a decision within days.

  Israel’s cabinet committee blocks F-35 order as too expensive, WorldTribune.com