Hacker News Reader

This is such a silly conspiracy theory. It may make sense for US congressmen to lobby for pork in their districts, but why would the Israeli Air Force invest in defective machines?

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lockheed_Martin_F-35_Lightning...

View on HN

Their existing fleet of F-15 and F-16 fighters is getting pretty old. I have been a “fan” of the F-16 since I was a kid and I’m in my 40s now.

I think for political reasons they don’t have access to Russian or European aircraft and they probably don’t want Chinese ones. This is the first new fighter we have available to them.

They can't buy F-22's?

No, F-22 is not up for export. Also, F-22 serves a specific role vs F-35 which is geared towards multiple capabilities. There are neither mutually exclusive nor substitute for each other.

It could be political reasons, or it could be that there are no Russian or European stealth aircraft. And it looks like Israel values the ability of F-35 to fly all the way to Tehran undetected [1].

[1] https://www.cnbc.com/2019/07/18/f-35-has-freaked-out-iran-an...

Reply on news.ycombinator.com