(Globes) Yuval Azulai - The Israel Ministry of Defense has decided to buy 30 Alenia Aermacchi M-346 jet trainers from Italy for the Israel Air Force, rather than South Korea's T-50 Golden Eagle. The Air Force found that the M-346 cost less and better meets the Air Force's needs. In exchange for the procurement deal, the Ministry of Defense intends to demand $1 billion in reciprocal procurements from Italy. The Italians will reportedly procure IAI's advanced AWACs planes and will jointly develop a new reconnaissance satellite with Israel. The South Koreans threatened that if Israel picked the M-346, Seoul would cancel current and future contracts for Israeli defense systems worth hundreds of millions of dollars that include radars, electronic warfare, and missile defense systems. A defense source said, "We can hope that South Korea will not cancel future arms deals....The competition was completely transparent."
2012-02-17 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive