(phil hunt) wrote in message ...
On 9 Jul 2003 23:40:26 -0700, JGB wrote:
The simple
fact is
that the Lavi wasn't much better than an F-16C, and would cost Israel
much
more due to the lack of economies of scales, as it might only need one
or
two hundred at most, whereas the US had produced close to 2000 F-16s,
and,
as I said, the US would never actually tolerate funding a competitor.

Couldn't Israel have funded construction itself? Another small
country, Sweden, manages to.

No. Israel has grown rather dependent upon the billions annually
provided in US aid (depending upon whose numbers you use, US aid would
be equal to somewhere around between 3 and 6% of their GDP). According
to year 2000 numbers, Israel had a GDP that was just over half that of
Sweden, and a lower per-capita GDP to boot. Go-it-alone is not a
likely avenue for israel; they even required South African capital to
develop their BVRAAM, the Derby.

Brooks