World’s Smallest Superpower

Israel was on its own. Surrounded by hostile Arab states, its population outnumbered about 30 to one and threatened by modern Soviet supplied and trained forces sworn to the total liquidation of the new State, the darkest hour had arrived and the lesson was clear that in order to survive Israel must begin producing its own weapons. 

Today the fruits of that historic decision are many and varied and range from the agile Kfir fighter through to patrol boats, missiles and a highly advanced range of electronics.

The nucleus of the Israeli effort to become largely self sufficient in defensive weaponry was Israel Aircraft Industries. IAI was formed in 1953, largely to rebuild and modify the wide variety of World War 11 era aircraft scraped together in the early days of the IDF. Mustangs, Spitfires, Me109s, Mosquitos, 826 and B17 aircraft were in those days the mainstay of the heyl Ha’Avir, the air arm of the IDF which itself at that stage was finding it difficult to cope with the large amount of maintenance required on such obsolete types.

IAI also undertook maintenance on the second-hand Constellations and Douglas aircraft of the new airline – EIAI. Rapid growth grew from the flames of battle and the art of improvisation was honed to a new degree of effectiveness – something Australians well understand.

By the early ’60s Israel found itself enjoying vigorous economic growth. From independence in 1948 right up till the Yor Kippur War in 1973 the young nation enjoyed an annual growth rate of around 10 per cent, about twice the world average. During those years the Israeli’s realised that their future lay in being able to create a high level of per capita productivity with an economy aimed at self-sufficiency and a high level of exports.

fortunately, the land that Moses chose so many centuries before was not an ideal choice. One Israeli joke says “if Moses had turned right instead of left then we would have got the oil instead of the oranges”. Like their pride, the Jews have never lost their sense of humour!

Israel has little oil reserves, and what it did have has been handed back to Egypt as part of the 1975 Sinai Disengagement Pact. Israel has little water and when the Syrians attempted to alter the course of the Jordan River effectively denying Israel much of its fresh water, Israel was prepared to go to war over the issue, so critical is the supply. Much of the land was of low agricultural value, what wasn’t sandy desert was likely to be a malarial swamp.

The saving asset of the country was the iron will of its people. Many had survived the holocaust of Nazi Europe, others had emigrated from surrounding Arab states where they faced persecution to start life anew, while still, others left comfortable lifestyles in North America to help rebuild their ancient Jewish homeland. As the years passed, this diverse family of peoples became skilled in trades that would tame their hostile land, make the desert green with agriculture and dry the malarial swamplands to make way for vast citrus orchards and cotton fields.

The same innovative “must do” attitude pervaded every facet of Israeli life, the defence of the new State being no exception.

The origins of this technology base were largely found by accident.

on Earth which was home to the same people speaking the same Hebrew language some 2000 years before Christ. Still, it’s great to be 30!

Following the French arms embargo in 1967 the Israel Parliament decided that every effort should be made to produce their own future weapons including supersonic fighters. At this time Israel Aircraft Industries had been busy assembling the last of a large number of French designed Magistar jet trainers. IAI had not only built the aircraft but had modified them extensively into very useful light ground attack air craft. However, the design and certification of a supersonic combat jet was another ball game altogether.

The aircraft the Israelis had paid for but were denied possession of was the Mirage 5, an updated version of the earlier Mirage Ill designed particularly for operation in a clear skies environment and possessing a handy ground attack capability. It seemed only logical therefore that IAI should lean towards developing their own version of the Mirage as this was where their requirements and expertise lay.

During the later years of the ’60s there occurred a brilliant operation designed to deliver to Israel the entire plans for the Mirage. The plan was bold, imaginative and a near impossibility, still for a nation that thrived on tackling impossibilities this new chore was simply another “must do” situation in order to survive. The rest is now history and the result is the very potent Kfir C2 fighter.

The Kfir was based on the Mirage 5 using the US-made General Electric )79 engine from the F4 Phantom. With around 25 per cent additional thrust over the earlier Mirage 11, an improved ranging radar (also produced in Israel by Elta Electronics, one of the many specialist divisions of IAI) and capable of carrying over 8000Ib of underwing stores the Kfir outperformed its design requirements with comparative ease. The fitment of fuselage-mounted canards just above and aft of the engine intakes greatly reduced turn radius and improved overall manoeuvrability in air-to-air combat modes. The Kfir is armed with two 30mm armour-destroying cannons and two IAI-made Rafael Shafrir air-to-air missiles, a version of the American Sidewinder, only better in most respects. The Kfir sells fairly cheaply by modern standards, the often rumoured price seems to hover around three to four million dollars flyaway.

Basically the Kfir was conceived and introduced into ser­vice as a stopgap against more advanced American aircraft such as the F15 and F16. Israel currently operates 25 F15, has another 25 on order along with 75 F16s. Heated debate is currently taking place on whether or not to proceed with an entirely new local design which would prove very expensive to such a small nation or to again risk the whims of inter­ national political betrayal and stay with US-made aircraft. The price will be a lot cheaper but will they be there in a decade’s time? That is the question now being asked throughout Israel.

The Kefir itself was planned to be in front-line operational deployment from around 1974 through to the mid to late ’80s. It was hoped that the aircraft would be more manoeuvrable, exhibit longer range and endurance and be able to carry almost twice the offensive stores as that of the earlier Mirage Ill. The Kfir did all this and more. The IDF was quite sur­prised with the aircraft once it was in full deployment. It was not only as good as the MiGs across the border(s) but was vir­tually miles ahead in every combat mode. Planned to operate primarily against the older MiG21, the Kfir is now placed operationally against the swing-wing MiG23.

It also helps that the IDF pilots are the best in the world. Perhaps a sweeping statement but with an air-to-air kill rate approaching 40:1 then who is to argue. Moshe Dayan once quipped that “the Arabs can afford to lose any number of wars, we cannot afford to lose one, between the desert sands and the Mediterranean there is no margin for defeat, we simply cannot lose one battle or it will be the end. ” It is this philosophy that makes the IDF such a highly effective force.

The Kfir isn’t the only IAI star. Also produced at the vast IAI facility alongside Ben Gurion International Airport is the Arava STOL transport and the 1124 Westwind executive jet. Both the Arava and Westwind are being produced at the rate of one or two per month.

The Arava is a twin-engine (two 750shp Pratt & Whitney PT6A turboprops) STOL transport capable of carrying a max­imum of 20 passengers in the civil guise or 17 paratroops in the military role. Sales have been made to a number of South American nations, though like our own GAF, IAI admit that perhaps they initially overestimated the market for this style of utility transport which in basic concept is so like our own Nomad N24.

The 1124 Westwind is a 7/8 seat executive jet powered by two Garrett AiResearch TFE731 turbofans allowing a long range cruise of just over 400kts for a maximum range with full payload and 45-minute reserves of 2600Nm. The Westwind is finding strong sales in the United States as the aircraft offers more interior space than comparable executive jets. Three Westwinds are operated in Australia by Jet Charterers of Melbourne. A Westwind variant is the sea scan version which is employed by the Israeli navy in the MR role. Due to its large cabin volume, the sea scan can carry far more surveillance electronics than contemporary small jet EEZ aircraft.

IAI does more than merely build aircraft. Their associated divisions undertake projects ranging from building patrol boats to designing computers and electronic surveillance equipment.

Number one IAI offshoot is Bedek Aviation which specialises in aircraft maintenance and refurbishment. Bedek, at the time of our visit, was hurriedly outfitting a corporate 707, complete with marble facsimile bath, and was returning to combat status a number of F4Es, A4 Skyhawks, Mirages, Kfirs, Hercules, Magistars and the occasional Bell 205 or 206. Quite an operation. Four very large hangars playing host to some of the world’s most exciting aircraft all looking meaningful in their desert camouflage with their innards carefully spread below their wings. Our escort testified that he was relieved when he saw the Bedek flight line overflowing with Phantoms and Skyhawks as it was only then that a period of “low threat” prevailed. One terrorist raid and the hangars could be half empty within hours, a little foreign to us but alas that is the way you have to live when your country is in a constant state of war.

Bedek undertakes much of the IDF air force servicing of key aircraft in addition to carrying out the modifications necessary to update the aircraft already in operation. They have also been known to purchase a bulk quantity of Boeings, refurbish them and sell them for a healthy profit when the time is right.

Other IAI divisions include Ramta, which specialises in the production of missile-armed patrol boats and armoured vehicles. The Ramta boat division is situated deep in the Negev desert at legendary Beersheba (everything in Israel is legendary, in fact the historical significance is overwhelming to the visitor) where the average rainfall is below a quarter of one inch per annum yet they have a modern city supporting over 100,000 people and agriculture that grows tulips and strawberries and then air-freights them to the supermarkets of Europe. From Beersheba the boats, the largest is 71ft long, are trailered to either the blue Mediterranean or South to Ilat and the Red Sea. Again the Israelis were forced to make their boats “transportable” as they had to effectively patrol separate seas. All Ramta boats are equipped with locally made weapons while the largest boats are mounted with the 4-mile Gabriel II surface-to-surface missile. The Gabriel has been proven in combat and in 1973 proved infinitely more effective than their Soviet-designed counterparts fired by rab vessels. Like the Shafrir, the Gabriel must work or the entire game is lost, there is no second best when you build weapons for Israel.

Another subsidiary is Elta Electronic Industries Ltd. Elta specialise in a wide range of electronic systems for the IOF including an advanced ranging radar that equips the Kfir. It is currently hoped to equip IDF F16 aircraft with this unit in place of the standard Westinghouse radar.

The growth of IAI, Israel’s largest private company, is simply demonstrated by the fact that manpower has shot from around 5000 in 1967 up to nearly 20,000 in 1979. In 1969, only 3 years ago, sales were below $50 million, 1979 sales are to exceed $500 million. Furthermore, all important ex­port earnings have shot from around $33 million in 1975 to over $100 million in 1978.

Political pressure, of course, presents problems in a varie­ty of subtle ways. For the same reason that Israel built the Kfir – political interference from outside countries – she is fin­ding that it is difficult to sell the aircraft to nations that would normally like to buy Israeli.

Ecuador for instance wanted to purchase 24 Kfirs but the contract was vetored by the US government on the grounds that the aircraft was powered by US-built GE engines. The US did not want a Mach 2 fighter entering the Central/South American theatre, so the Ecuadorians then went out and purchased the French Mirage F1. Another case is the interest Taiwan showed in the aircraft. US permission to sell was final­ly given after much stalling owing to the new rapport with mainland China. During the delay, IAI lost quite a lot of ground to the opposition and finally Taiwan was “persuaded” not to buy the Kfir by Saudi Arabia where billions of dollars are tied up in Taiwanese development programs, etc.

The problem of veto that the US government has over the sale of the Kfir has prompted IAI to produce a Kfir variant called the Dagger. This new plane is basically closer to the original Mirage 5 and is powered by the Snecma Atar engine that powers the Mirage III. There are no problems here as the Israelis have a good stock of this engine and can virtually produce copies themselves if needs be.

Any new fighter that Israel produced would have to be tied up to water-tight agreements between the supplier of the engine and the marketer, namely IAI before the project could advance beyond speculation. The alternative of course is for Israel to build her own engines. This naturally raises a mountain of questions not the least of which is dollar bills. Where from and how many?

For the time being though, the IDF virtually places Israel in the superpower league. Its air force is not only super­ efficient but the air and ground personnel are among the highest trained in the world, not to mention experienced in real combat situations. A typical fighter mission requires at least six briefed segments with a “smokey” thrown in for good measure while the mission is in progress. No other Air Force trains as rigorously or demands such a high level of competence from their front-line crews.

To add to this vast sea of expertise are some of the world’s most capable aircraft. Air superiority is gained by the F15 Eagle of which Israel operates 25 with additional aircraft due for delivery in 1981. The Eagle is backed up by nearly 200 Phantoms, mostly F4E with a dozen RF4Es for reconnaissance. Add to this another 60 Kfir and 30 Mirage Ill aircraft and you do have an assurance of friendly airspace. We believe that an additional number of Kfirs are in storage, capable of being operational at 72 hours’ notice. Ground support is largely handled by 250 Skyhawks of several marks and backed up by the F4E Pharitom and Kfir. All of these aircraft are now supplied with AWACS support from four Grumman E2C Hawkeye aircraft.

This formidable force in turn is supported by Hercules air­ lifters, Boeing 707 tankers, Bell 206 and 205, Sikorsky CH53 and Super Frelon helicopters and a number of venerable C47s. Amongst the flight line of aviation exotica it was great to see the old Gooney Bird sitting proudly amongst the world’s foremost military hardware.

Israel’s entire existence depends upon the ability of the IDF to repel aggressors and sadly there has never been any shortage of hostile neighbours. Perhaps even sadder is the fact that Jew and Arab can live side by side in social harmony. Indeed Israel is home to over 400,000 Muslims, it is also worth noting that the Israeli Arabs enjoy the highest standard of liv­ing of any Arabs in the region. The problem with the Arabs as a whole stems from their various leaders who prefer to see the word of Islam holding court over the entire region rather than allowing them to live in peaceful co-existence with their neighbours – Jews or Christians alike. The situation is also ac­tively flamed into open aggression by the Soviet Union which consistently prefers anarchy and revolt above peace and per­ sonal prosperity let alone free enterprise and a government selected by the vote of its people.

All Jews serve at some time in the IDF. Men serve for 36 months while women (unless married or a mother) serve for 24 months. Men then go on to the reserve listing till they are aged 54, women 25 unless married. Muslims and Christians are not conscripted for active service though they may enlist if they so desire. The IDF itself, except in times of crisis, is a bare-bones operation that is designed around the concept of rapid mobilization; in fact, somewhere in the region of half a million men and women can be mobilized within 48 hours. An example of how efficient the overall IDF personnel policy is was ably demonstrated in 1967 when, despite the ferocity of the fighting on three separate fronts, only half the combat un­ its of the IDF actually saw battle!

Israel has fought and convincingly won four wars.

The first was the longest and most costly in terms of lives lost and overall damage to the economy. The War of Independence commenced the morning after Israel declared its nationhood on May 14, 1948. That morning the fledgling State was attacked by the combined forces of six Arab States (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Saudi Arabia) deter­mined to wipe it off the face of the Earth. Israel had little in the way of weapons, and most of what the British had left was given openly to the Arabs including occupancy to the strategic Taggart forts situated in most cases overlooking the rural area and villages occupied by the Jewish Israelis. The War of Independence lasted almost one full year with a lull mid-way through. Both sides, despite the vast superiority of armour and manpower favouring the Arabs, fought to what militarily amounted to a “draw”. Through the course of 1949 separate armistices were signed with the Arab States, none of which were worth anything more than the paper they were written on.

The war of 1956, or the 100 hour-war, was fought following repeated attacks against southern Israel by Egyptian forces who finally closed the Suez Canal and the vital Straits of Tiran, effectively cutting Israel’s access to the Red Sea. Israeli armoured forces took only a few days to dissolve the threat so loudly posed by Egypt’s President Nasser. The French and English intervened in a comical fashion on the Suez Canal issue leading to them eventually forsaking their strategic hold on the entire region. Israel was forced to withdraw from captured Sinai and the area was placed in the hands of UN forces.

1967 saw the first of the wars that earned the tiny State the title of the new Sparta of the Middle East. Again Israel was blockaded by Egypt and threatened by vast arrays of armour on its three fronts, particularly in Sinai. The UN forces had fled their peacekeeping positions and the Arabs were just beginning to tighten the noose. To add to Israel’s problems France had embargoed future arms sales, the US and UK turned a blind eye, while Soviet Russia continued to deliver the latest MiG21 jets and armour to the Arbas in almost limitless quantities. If Israel was to survive another year it must act now before the Arab numerical superiority became so great that Israeli defeat was inevitable.

On the morning of June 5, 1967 IDF Mirage Ill and Super Mystere aircraft struck at Egypt’s airfields. In a little over two hours the bulk of Egyptian air power had been destroyed. By
0900 hours it was Jordan’s turn, that took 15 minutes followed by the Syrian Air Force. By .ioon three air forces and hundreds of enemy planes had been destroyed. A similar fate awaited the Egyptian armoured forces in the Sinai where Egyptian field commanders were told by GHQ that the absence of covering air support was because these aircraft were busy mopping up the many targets deep in Israel. When the true situation became evident, the Egyptian forces in Sinai retreated at full speed for the Canal. Not many made it, in fact IDF Mirages blasted several dozen Egyptian tanks nicely bottled up in the strategic Mitla Pass in what has become a text book operation.

When the Israelis took Sinai they found thousands of army boots in the sand; insult was added to Arab injury when it was realised that the Egyptian troops had forsaken their
heavy boots so as to be able to make better speed over the sand in their attempts to flee the IDF juggernaut.

Meanwhile Hussein had entered the fray with an artillery bombardment of Israeli positions near Jerusalem. In the fighting that ensued the Jordanians lost all of Jerusalem and the West Bank in addition to several hundred tanks. To the north, the Golan Heights represented an armoured fortress, gently rolling hills running right down into the lush Huleh Valley. For 19 years Israeli farmers had been shelled by day and subjected to night-time harassment by roving guerilla mobs. Capture of the Golan Heights would end this constant source of danger. Only the year before an American military team had estimated that it would take the IDF at least two weeks to regain Golan, they would suffer massive casualties and even then it could go either way as the Syrians held every tactical advantage. The IDF to.ok all of the Golan Heights in a little under three days!

Israel this time held on to its occupied territory, thereby ensuring for itself some sort of breathing space should another attack occur. Their acceptance of peace solutions so earnestly promoted by foreign nations and the positioning of UN forces had proved totally ineffective. Israel was on its own and that was the only fact that mattered. The massive defeat suffered by the Arabs burned deeply into their hearts and pride. Heavily re-armed by the Soviets they planned ahead for the day when a new unified force of Arab armies would once and for all push Israel into the Mediterranean.

That day came in early October 1973 when the combined forces of Egypt, Syria and Jordan, backed up by small token forces from Iraq and Saudi Arabia, launched a particularly well-conceived and executed surprise attack on three fronts. Israel had been caught totally unprepared due to faulty in­telligence and a series of incidents that made it politically and economically unattractive to order mobilization unnecessari­ly. By dusk on the second day of the war, launched on the holy day of Yorn Kippur, about equivalent to our Christmas Day in terms of tactical importance, Israel was fighting for its life.

To the north, some 1400 Syrian tanks backed up by such a formidable array of mobile SAM missiles that the Israeli. air force had to suspend bombing missions after the loss of more than 24 Phantoms and Skyhawks in a period of three hours, rolled on down the slopes towards central Israel. To the east Jordanians met with less success and preferred to leave the region to the Syrians, when the Jordanians later threw in their armoured divisions the Iraqis mistook Hussein’s Cen­turions for IDF Centurions and destroyed their own ally’, elite tank force. As in ’67, Hussein was beginning to wish he didn’t got involved in the war.

To the south, the Israeli armour was feeling the crippling effectiveness of man-portable anti-tank weapons, particularly the Soviet Sagger. In many cases, a tank would be hit by up to two golden missiles. Denied true air support (owing to the mobile SAM missiles accompanying the Egyptian forces and with their tasks limited to fighting a static battle against the Israeli counter-terrorists attack would prove a costly operation in lives and equipment.

It has been said by noted military historians that two points of view were formed in those early days which psychologically affected both the Arabs and Israelis in profoundly different ways. Firstly the Arabs joyously remember their great victories in the early days of the war. Secondly, the Israelis only remembered the defeats and humiliation of initially losing so much ground against their enemy, this had never before occurred and it would take morale a considerable time to recover. In retrospect though the Israelis tend to overlook their bold advances and the crushing counter-attacks in the final weeks of the 21-day war that, took them to within 30 kilometres of Damascus and around 60 kilometres from Cairo. In both instances, IDF armoured corps could have gone further but did not wish to overexcite the Russians to physically intervene thereby sowing the seeds for World War Ill.

It is this potential for world holocaust that makes the Middle East situation so precarious.

The overall situation is now worsened by the collapse of Iran as a reliable bulwark against Soviet ambitions in the region. In fact Israel, apart from being the only democratically elected government in the entire region, is now the only real ally that Washington and much of the Western World can rely upon. Even the pro-Western leadership of Saudi Arabia, the UAR and Oman live in an insecure environment, most are ruled by large families, members of which often hold differing views and an abundance of power-hungry pretenders to the throne. Who would have thought 12 months ago that the Iranian situation would be what it is today? What would happen to Egypt if Sadat should meet an untimely demise? Would Egypt be turned over to Soviet-manipulated dictatorships like Syria, Iraq and Libya?

Against this background, even a blind man can easily see why Israel prefers to maintain possession of parts of the Sinai and Golan regions, why it spends one dollar in three of its national budget on defence and why defence spending, averages nine times per head what it does in Australia.

The world’s smallest superpower, the new Sparta of the Middle East, calls Israel what you like but her David and Goliath battle for survival over 40 centuries certainly augurs for a very long future.