"Vorsprung durch technik" - Israel to be the first country to receive the F-35 stealth jet fighter.

"Vorsprung durch technik" - Israel to be the first country to receive the F-35 stealth jet fighter.HT: Israelhayom.

State-of-the-art fighter aircraft, the first of which are scheduled to be delivered to Israel at the end of 2016, are also expected to be fitted with an Israeli "twist" 

Israel's Air Force can start preparing the runways after the vice president of Lockheed Martin, Steve O'Bryan, announced on Tuesday at the Paris Air Show that Israel will be the first country to receive the F-35 American-made stealth fighter jet.

The state-of-the-art fighter aircraft, the first of which are scheduled to be delivered to Israel at the end of 2016, are also expected to be fitted with an Israeli "twist."

O'Bryan said Lockheed Martin was examining the feasibility of adding detachable fuselages to the plane, manufactured by the Israeli company Cyclone, a subsidiary of Elbit Systems, mainly because the fuselages would not be detrimental to the plane's stealth capabilities. In practical terms, this means that the plane would have a longer flight range while still remaining invisible to enemy radar.

The first of 20 versatile, single-engine F-35s, ordered by Israel in October 2010 at a cost of $2.75 billion, are scheduled to arrive in 2016 at the earliest, but the Air Force is already setting up a new infrastructure to absorb the stealth jets.Read the full story here.