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The Lavi
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significant and essential deci-
sions were made with infor-
mation that was based on
groundless, inadequate,
tendentious and incorrect
assessments of costs," he
wrote.
Maltz described how, quite
casually, the Lavi ballooned
from a modest, single-engine
successor to Israel's Kfir jet
fighter into a massive $2.5
billion project. Not surpris-
ingly, Israeli government of-
ficials strongly protested
Maltz's findings.
Ezer Weizman, who was
defense minister when the
original decision was taken,
confirms that he instructed
Israel Aircraft Industries to
draw up plans for a modest,
inexpensive plane.
Weizman, commander of
the Israel Air Force during
the Six-Day War and now an
opponent of continued
development of the Lavi,
believed then, as now, that/
Israel did not have the
economic resources to com-
pete with large, highly in-
dustrialized nations in
building a sophisticated jet
fighter.
Working under the original
guidelines, engineers at
Israel Aircraft Industries
planned a single-engine Lavi
which was approved by the
cabinet in February 1980.
Not long afterwards, Weiz-
man • resigned as defense
minister and the then-Air
Force commander David Ivri
appealed to Prime Minister .
Menachem Begin, then also
Defense Minister, to expand
on the "small Lavi."
Both Ivri and Begin were
haunted by the trauma of the
Yom Kippur War when Israel
lost 102 planes, mostly to
ground-to-air missiles. Ivri
contended that the air force
needed a much larger plane
in which to pack the
necessary avionics and anti-
missile systems.
According to Reuven Pedat-
zur, military correspondent of
the Hebrew-language daily
Ha'aretz, Begin accepted
Ivri's arguments without
question: "The air force com-
mander is the expert," was
Begin's reported response. "If
he says we need a larger
plane, we must abide by his
advice."
Up to that stage, says
Pedatzur, defense establish-
ment estimates showed that
the cost of developing the
Lavi would total $900
million, while the production
of each plane would cost $1
million.
The next defense minister,
Ariel Sharon, ordered a com-
plete review of the Lavi pro-
ject, then gave it the green
light. Ills successor, Moshe
Lavi prototypes at IAI.
size of the standing army
Arens, became — and re-
itself have been cut back.
mains — a passionate ad-
Israel now has one-sixth
vocate of the plane, regarding
fewer tanks and fighter
it as the "flagship project" of
aircraft.
the State of Israel.
Arens persuaded the
Last-Ditch Efforts
United States Administra-
To
Save It
tion to earmark $250 million
Israel
Aircraft Industries
of its annual aid to be used in
chief executive Moshe Keret,
Israel for the development of
the Lavi. Last year the - who continues to argue pas-
sionately for the continuation
amount was increased to
of the Lavi, points out that
$300 million.
closing down the project now
Current Defense Minister
would itself be a costly
Yitzhak Rabin came to office
exercise.
in 1984 with a history of op-
Penalty payments, conser-
position t6 the project, but
vatively estimated at $400
after examining the informa-
million, would have to be
tion supplied by Israel Air-
made to such United States
craft Industries, he also decid-
companies as Grumman,
ed to press ahead.
Pratt and Whitney, and Lear-
One condition he laid down
Ziegler, which are contracted
was that no more than $55,0
to supply various parts of the
million a year was to be in-
Lavi. In addition, substantial
vested in the Lavi (according
compensation would have to
to Pentagon estimates, it will
be paid to the thousands of
cost $900 million a year).
redundant - scientists,
The gradual accumulation
engineers and technicians (up
of economic evidence against
to $55,000 per worker).
the Lavi, plus the growing
Keret has appealed to the
and increasingly outspoken
politicians to explore alter-
opposition .to it from the
nate means for funding the
defense establishment, forced
Lavi—partnerships with
many Knesset Members to
foreign governments and
reassess their positions.
aeronautics companies,
Principal among them is
special government-
Rabin himself. Just one year
sponsored bonds, financial
ago, he described the Lavi as
backers among world Jewry.
a "national need" and an
He argues that purchasing
"operational necessity." Late
the 150 F-16s Israel will need
last week, he noted in a
by 1990 will not entail a
television interview: "In the
significant saving over the
framework of the current
home-grown Lavi.
budget; it is impossible to con-
In the final analysis, he
tinue with the Lavi."
says, if the Lavi project is kill-
Rabin, a former prime
ed, Israel "will have forfeited
minister and chief of staff,
a program that has brought
pointed out that since he
Israel to the forefront of
became defense minister
avionic, electronic and
three years ago, the defense
aerodynamic technology, and,
budget has undergone an
in the process, it will have
"unprecedented" reduction
sacrificed a vastly superior
(from $4.2 million to $3.6
Lavi to the F-16 for marginal
million). "For most of this
economic gain."
period," he said, "we have
had to participate in the ef-
Scrapping the Lavi, Keret
fort to save the national
adds, will mean an extra $300
economy."
million a year for the defense
As a result, research and
forces, but the money will be
development, training and
dissipated and Israel will be
procurement as well as the
left without a precisely