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The U.S. Role in Israel's Arms Industry
In a December 1986 New York Times article, Robert Friedman states that Israel has become one of the world’s top 10 arms exporters.1 A recent report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), entitled Arms Production in the Third World identifies Israel as the Third World’s largest arms producer between 1980 and 1984. Among the main Third World arms producers, according to the report, Israel is the only important producer and exporter of the four major arms categories—aircraft, armored vehicles, missiles and ships.2 Friedman’s article and the SIPRI report places Israel head to head in the international arms market with major industrial powers such as Britain, France and West Germany. Israeli arms have reportedly been sold to 64 countries and a host of other military movements in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East, North America and the South Pacific. [See “Israeli Arms Customers by Region.”] Of the $1.2 billion that Israel reportedly exports annually in arms and security services,3 roughly $500 million is exported to the United States.4 The inevitable question that comes to mind is: How can Israel, a fledgling country of four million people, afford all the research and development, capital, personnel, facilities and extensive marketing network required by a highly sophisticated arms industry and yet successfully penetrate the intensely competitive, but lucrative, U.S. arms market? The success of the Israeli arms industry can be attributed to a combination of domestic and foreign factors. The domestic factors include: the presence of a large pool of highly skilled workers, scientists and engineers; a government policy that actively encourages arms production and military research; and a broad public consensus favoring arms production and arms exports. Secondly, Israel’s arms industry would not have progressed beyond the stage of producing ammunition and light arms or reconditioning surplus stocks without contributions from abroad—initially from Europe and subsequently from the United States. The Transition from Europe to the United States Prior to 1967, most of the technology or expertise for the manufacture of weapons in Israel was obtained from France or West Germany, taking the form of machines, tools, production lines and even entire industrial military plants.5 In the late 1950s, an agreement was negotiated with the French firm Fouga for the assembly of 12 Magister trainer jets in Israel. Many parts of the plane were produced domestically, and when the production of the French-made wings lagged, Israel purchased entire wing assemblies from Heinkel, the West German firm that manufactured the Magister under license from Luftas.6 Israel’s famous Kfir C-2 fighter bomber, now in its second generation, was built using the stolen blueprints of France’s Mirage-5, to which the powerful American-made General Electric J-79 engine was added.7 Israel also made use of foreign military equipment considered obsolete, building several hybrid weapons from the parts of outdated equipment. Thus, the Isherman and Supersherman tanks were built from old French M4 and U.S. M50 Shermans, and the T1-67 evolved from about 300 Soviet-made T-54/55 tanks captured in the June 1967 war.8 The Galil assault rifle, one of Israel’s bestsellers on the international market, is simply a lighter version of the Soviet-made Kalashnikov rifle.9 Although by 1966-67, Israel’s arms industry claimed capability of producing 400 small arms items, it was the French arms embargo, following the June 1967 war, that spurred Israel to direct its arms industry “toward fulfillment of its all-encompassing ideal--the total supply of all requirements in arms and munitions of every kind, their components, auxiliary equipment, spare parts, explosives, propellant fuels, chemicals and all else needed for the defense of the state.10 To implement its decision, Israel needed, among other things, the necessary capital and the technological expertise. At first Israel focused on its Western friends and allies to provide what was needed. However, when assistance was not forthcoming, Israel took matters into its own hands. In 1969, for example, Israeli agents stole the blueprints of the French Atar 9-C engines used in the Mirage-3 and Mirage-5 aircraft. Armed with detailed plans for both engine and air frame, Israel secretly built the Mirage, fitting it with an Atar engine. Code-named the Nesher, or Eagle,11 the aircraft first flew in 1971 and was later used during the October 1973 war. Although Israel continues to have access to European technology, as a member of the Common Market’s free-trade area, it has received considerably less European input, particularly since the late 1960s. Instead, the United States has emerged both as the principal source of Israel’s sophisticated weaponry and an indispensable partner in its arms industry. In the 1950s, the United States provided Israel with its first access to arms production technology. Although a formal military assistance relationship existed between the two countries, not much military cooperation was in place. It was not until 1962 that the U.S. offered Israel some military loans and only in 1966 that it agreed to ensure the sale of arms to Israel, if not from the Western allies, then from the U.S. itself.12
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