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36

THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS

Friday, May 9, 1986

The Great
Cover Up

CAPITOL REPORT

WOLF BLITZER

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U.S. Navy Pilots Learn
From Israeli Air Combat

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Defense Minister Yitzhak
Rabin has been told by U.S.
naval pilots that the lessons
learned from Israel's earlier
combat experience against
Soviet-made equipment signifi-
cantly helped the U.S. last
month during its own air strikes
against Libya.
"We learned a lot from the
performance of the Israeli
pilots," Rear Admiral Jerry
Riedneau told Rabin last week
during a tour of the U.S. Air
Naval Station in Oceana, Vir-
ginia. "We had many of the
same problems that you had
over there." -
Riedneau, the Oceana base
commander, introduced four
U.S. pilots who had participated
in the U.S.-Libyan confronta-
tion over the Gulf of Sidra and
the subsequent bombing of
Libya. Aided by videotaped film
of the actual operations, the
pilots gave the visiting Defense
Minister a first-hand account of
the incidents.
When film was shown of a Li-
byan MIG-23 approaching some
of the U.S. F-14's over the Gulf
of Sidra, Riedneau said, "I know
that for the Israeli fighter pilots
in this room, this is not an
unusual sight."
Rabin, accompanied by senior
aides, was flown from the Pen-
tagon by a U.S. Marine Corps
helicopter to the Oceana base to
see the squardron of Israeli-
made Kfir jet fighters leased to
the U.S. Navy last year. The 12
Kfirs, now designated the F-21
by the U.S. Navy, are used to
simulate Soviet-made MIG-21
and MIG-23 fighters in training
exercises.
Rabin was told by Riedneau
that the Kfir program has been
"very successful." The rear ad-
miral predicted that the 12 Kfirs
will remain in the service of the
U.S. Navy as long as they can
fly. "My gut feeling is that they
will never see the skies of Israel
again," Riedneau said.
The Defense Minister, who
toured the naval facility and
observed the Kfirs in action dur-
ing a precision fly-past, said,
"Normally, we're used to using
American-made equipment in
Israel. It's nice for a change to
see Israeli-made equipment used
in the United States."
Rabin's visit to this base
dramatically underscored the
unusually close state of Ameri-
can-Israeli military ties. In brief-
ing the Defense Minister on the
incidents in Libya, for example,
the American officers were ex-
tremely candid.
Rabin, for his part, contrasted
Libya's capabilities with those
of Syria. He noted that Syria
has a much more sophisticated
electronic warfare capability.
Libya was now only beginning
to absorb this kind of equip-
ment, he said.
U:S. and Israeli officials said
that most of the technical data
of the confrontations had al-

ready been passed to Israel
through normal military chan-
nels. Israel, over the years, has
always provided the U.S. with
similar details of its own mili-
tary actions against Soviet-
made equipment.
Rabin and Defense Secretary
Caspar Weinberger were sche-
duled to sign an agreement at a
formal Pentagon ceremony on
U.S.-Israeli cooperation in the
research and development of the

"I know that for the
Israeli fighter pilots
this is not an
unusual sight."

Strategic Defense Initiative
(SDI), known as the Star Wars
program. The Defense Minister
was also due to meet with Vice
President George Bush, Secre-
tary of the Navy John Lehman
and other U.S. officials.
The Defense Minister, after
leaving Oceana, met at the State
Department in Washington
with Deputy Secretary John
Whitehead for what U.S. and
Israeli officials described as a
general "tour d'horizon" of
bilateral and regional issues.
Rabin was also scheduled to
make Israel Bonds appearances
in New York, Philadelphia,
Washington, Baltimore and
New Jeresey.
But much of one day of his
visit was devoted to a tour of
the huge air naval station near
Norfolk, Virginia. The Defense
Minister chatted with some of
the 14 experienced American
pilots trained in Israel to fly the
Kfirs. He also met briefly with
some of the Israeli Aircraft In-
dustry personnel brought to
Oceana to maintain the Kfir
squadron. There are 20 Israeli
and 65 American mechanics in-
volved in the program.
The Kfirs have just won a
safety award from the U.S.
Chief of Naval Operations for
their performance during their
first year in service in the
United States. U.S. Navy Corn-
mander Peter Burgren, the Kfir
squaron leader, said that the
Kfirs had a 95 percent "mission
readiness" capability this year
as compared to the 87 percent
level achieved by the U.S.-made
F-5 fighters, also used in the
same training program.
U.S. and Israeli officials are
close to reaching final agree-
ment on the transfer of a second
squadron of 13 Kfirs to be bas-
ed in Yuma, Arizona, for a
similar adversary training
program.
The President of Israel Air-
craft Industries, Moshe Keret,
who joined Rabin for the tour,
was clearly pleased by the first
$80 million Kfir lease arrange-
ment. He said that the second

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