'Vorsprung durch Technik' Israel's 'Custom' F-35 Stealth Fighter.

Israel's 'Custom' F-35 Stealth Fighter: A Lethal, High-Tech Wonder Weapon? (nationalinterest).

Israel is practically a launch customer for the American-designed F-35 stealth fighter. The Jewish state plans on declaring its first squadron of the radar-evading jet combat-ready by the end of 2017.

And Israel’s F-35s will be unique. While most foreign customers of the stealth fighter plan to operate fairly standard F-35s, Tel Aviv is heaping its own special tech onto the airframe.

And that’s not the only way in which Israel’s F-35s will be unique. The country should also possess a regional F-35 monopoly for at least a decade after bringing the stealth fighters into service.

With U.S. approval, the Israeli F-35I will possess a locally-designed command-and-control system that adds to the plane’s existing capabilities. On April 3, Israel Aerospace Industries announced that it had completed testing of the new add-on, which amounts to a software-driven radio interface that Benni Cohen, an IAI manager, described as being similar to a smartphone app.

“It’s open architecture, which sits on the F-35’s central system, much like an application on your iPhone,” Cohen told Defense News. “It paves the way for additional advanced capabilities to be embedded in the F-35I in the future.”

Moreover, Israel’s F-35s will not be wedded to the Autonomic Logistics Information System, a global network of data-sharing that F-35-builder Lockheed Martin is developing in order to coordinate maintenance and upgrades for most of the world’s F-35s.

Instead, the United States is considering authorizing Israel to repair its F-35s and their engines at its own depots.

Israel has ordered 33 F-35Is, Washington has approved Tel Aviv to acquire up to 75 F-35s.

Israeli defense minister Moshe Ya’alon plans to be in Texas in late June in order to formally accept the first F-35I as it rolls out of Lockheed’s Fort Worth factory. Hmmm......Only HUGE Mistake is to sell the F-35 to Islamist Dictatorship Turkey. Read the full story here.