Message posted by SLCDreamland on October 01, 2009 at 22:21:35 PST:

I was really excited to see this post because I wrote my senior thesis in college 2 years ago on the US Government and IAF relations and aircraft trade. I almost got it published too. Anyways, there are many reasons why the USAF and IAF trade. First, the US has been supplying aircraft to the IAF since just a couple years after the birth of the state of Israel. The US, along with British and French, aircraft that has been sold at incredibly cheap prices essentially were vital tools during the cold war. I would highly doubt that the IAF is planning on using the Mig-29s because of the reasons mentioned by other posters, but the IAF does use different aircraft parts, systems and components to "piece together" their own aircraft. Evidence is clearly seen in the IAF Lavi Project. It is interesting to note that if indeed there is some trade of Mig-29s, it may be because the trade of F-35s to the IAF was cancelled after the IAF stealthly traded UAV Harpy information to China. Heck, all the major wars between Israel and Arab forces, except the six day war, have used US loaned aircraft. The F-16I and newer F-15s that have been sold/loaned to the IAF would completely dominate the Mig-29s.
Long story short, the IAF is a scrappy and pieced together Air Force and who the hell knows why they want Mig-29s.
Let me know if you want more info about the USAF and IAF trade of military aircraft and technology. It was a 90 page paper. :)

In Reply to: Mig 29s to Israel posted by writer on September 30, 2009 at 13:27:55 PST:

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