Officials said the administration of President Barack Obama was told
that Israel would become the first foreign country to order the F-35
fighter-jet. They said Israel, which decided to reduce its initial request,
would procure JSF ahead of such partners in the program as Britain, the
Netherlands and Turkey.
"I am waiting for them to make a decision any day," Defense Security
Cooperation Agency director Jeffrey Wieringa said.
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Wieringa, a naval vice admiral scheduled to retire over the next 10
days, did not provide details of the sales accord with Israel. Wieringa said
he expected Israel to procure 19 F-35 aircraft in a deal estimated at $3
billion.
"The ball is in their court," Wieringa told Reuters news agency at the
Farnborough Airshow on July 19.
In 2008, the United States approved an Israeli request for an initial
order of 25 F-35s, Middle East Newsline reported. It was not clear why Israel reduced the procurement to 19
aircraft.
Officials said the Defense Department has urged Israel to sign an
agreement by September 2010 to purchase JSF. They said the Pentagon regarded
an Israeli deal as a key element in strategic cooperation between Jerusalem
and Washington as well as efforts to advance the troubled F-35 program
abroad.
For nearly two years, the JSF deal was stuck over the U.S. refusal to
allow Israel to install indigenous systems on the fifth-generation aircraft.
The Pentagon also rejected Israeli requests to relay codes that would allow
Israel to update or modify subsystems.
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