Word: lavi
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...Israeli generals would gladly kill it, and so would Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Yet rising criticism and soaring costs have so far failed to force Israel's Lavi jet fighter program off course. The time has come, however, when Jerusalem must decide whether to funnel more billions into the troubled Lavi (Hebrew for lion) or scrap a warplane that has become a symbol of national pride and a key source of jobs. The need to make that choice has triggered a vitriolic debate in which military and economic issues have frequently given way to pure emotion. "The real question," shouted...
...decision seemed simple enough when the Israeli Cabinet approved the Lavi in 1980. Jerusalem had long wanted an advanced fighter that could dodge antiaircraft missiles while skimming battlefields to blast enemy targets. As then Defense Minister Ezer Weizman envisioned it, the plane was to be "small and cheap -- but a bastard" in combat. Over the years, though, Weizman has become a leading opponent of the plane. Says he: "It is too costly, comes too late and at the expense of more important objectives." Today the aircraft represents the perils that a small, defense-minded country can confront when it sets...
...meantime, U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger arrived for two days of talks with Israeli leaders. On leaving, he announced that the Administration had decided to grant Israel access to the advanced U.S. technology needed for the Lavi fighter jet, which is expected to become the workhorse of the Israeli air force in the 1990s. He said the U.S. would also consider meeting Israeli requests to buy three diesel submarines and to sell Israeli-made 120-mm mortars and ammunition to the U.S. Army...
...early 1990s, Israel's new fighter-bomber should be ready. Called the Lavi (young lion in Hebrew), the jet is touted by Israelis as the most potent in the Western world, complete with state-of-the-art weapons delivery systems and electronic warfare devices. Israel Aircraft Industries began designing the Lavi in 1980. After several U.S. firms turned down Israel's offer of a co-production deal, the Begin government approached the Reagan Administration. Eventually, Washington not only agreed to share U.S. technology with Israel but earmarked nearly $1 billion in development funds for the Lavi. When it finally comes...
Under the terms of the document, the U.S. will offer to help finance development of the Lavi, a new Israeli fighter jet. Other facets of the arrangement may include placing U.S. military equipment in Israel, holding top-level military exchanges, conducting joint exercises and sharing worldwide intelligence data. The U.S. may be even more generous with its financial aid, partly by turning a larger percentage of its huge annual subsidy (an estimated $2.6 billion for fiscal 1984) into outright grants...