(inFocus Quarterly-Jewish Policy Center) Yoram Ettinger - The annual U.S. investment in Israel - erroneously defined as "foreign aid" - has yielded one of the highest rates of return on U.S. investments overseas. At a time when the Pentagon is experiencing draconian cuts in its defense budget, Israel has been the most cost-effective laboratory for U.S. defense industries, sharing with the U.S. unique intelligence, battle experience, and battle tactics. Israel's Air Force, which flies American-made aircraft, shares with the U.S. Air Force and U.S. manufacturers real-time, daily operational maintenance and repair lessons derived from Israel's daily battle experience. For example, the plant manager of General Dynamics/Lockheed Martin, which manufactures the F-16, asserted that Israeli lessons have spared the manufacturer 10-20 years of R&D, leading to over 700 modifications in the current generation of the F-16, "valued at a mega-billion dollar bonanza to the manufacturer." Similar lessons have been shared with the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps and the U.S. manufacturers of tanks, armored personnel carriers, missile launchers, missiles, night navigation systems, and hundreds of additional military and homeland security systems manufactured by the U.S. and utilized by Israel. According to Gen. George Keegan, a former U.S. Air Force intelligence chief, the value of intelligence shared by Israel with the U.S. - exposing the air capabilities of adversaries, their new military systems, electronics, and jamming devices - "could not be procured with five CIAs....The ability of the U.S. Air Force in particular, and the Army in general, to defend whatever position it has in NATO owes more to Israeli intelligence input than it does to any other single source of intelligence." In 2014, Gen. (ret.) Chuck Krulak, former Commandant, USMC, stated: "The U.S. battle tactics formulation at Fort Leavenworth, KS - the intellectual Mecca of the U.S. Army - is based on the Israeli book." Recently, Israel's Air Force developed a groundbreaking method of identifying, repairing, and preempting cracks in old combat planes, such as the F-16, using ultrasound machines, and promptly shared that information with the U.S. Air Force and the manufacturer. Instead of grounding planes for six months and preoccupying hundreds of mechanics, the Israeli-developed system requires two weeks and only a few mechanics, yielding significant economic and national security benefits. Israel is the only stable, reliable, predictable, capable, democratic, and unconditional ally of the U.S. Israel constitutes a critical obstacle to Islamic imperialism, enhancing the security of the U.S. and its Arab allies. Unlike Europe, Israel is able and willing to flex its muscles. Thus, Israel acts as a special strategic partner to America.
2016-04-19 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive