With questions raised by various leaks on Sunday about whether the Finance Ministry’s delay in a NIS 15 billion payment has already broken a contract signed between Israel and the US for Apache helicopters, The Jerusalem Post was told by an IDF spokesperson that the deal is not yet off, though it may be delayed.
In January, the US State Department approved a possible $3.8b. foreign military sale to Israel of AH-64E Apache attack helicopters and related equipment. This was expected to lead to the purchase of 30 helicopters, with an initial order of 12.
Israeli defense officials had been pushing for this as a critical step toward modernizing the air force’s combat helicopter fleet, including being better prepared to use a larger fleet to prevent future potential ground invasions, such as occurred with Hamas on October 7, 2023.
Generally speaking, the air force was viewed as ineffective that day, but the helicopter fleet was one of the few bright spots in at least contributing some firepower to reducing the number of Hamas invaders in the early hours of that day.
Despite the positive move in January, delays from the ministry have already led to missed deadlines for the helicopters, notably in July.
Apache deals expected to continue, with delays
Yet another deadline was missed last Thursday.
Nevertheless, some leaks in the Hebrew media appear to exaggerate the consequences of the missed deadlines.
An IDF spokesperson said that all expectations were that the deals were still on, but simply delayed.
Delays are not free.
Often, after a delay, Israel and other countries have to pay higher fees because any deal not locked in is subject to inflation, which invariably increases the purchase price over time.
In addition, Israel's delays in purchasing additional F-15s and F-35s earlier this decade have forced Jerusalem to fall in line behind other countries that placed purchase orders. Ultimately, the delays were a much larger issue than simply the time it took Israel to make its decision.
If the first round of 12 helicopters was originally expected to begin arriving in 2030, the new arrival date could be pushed back even further than Israel's already eight-month delay.
Highly unpredictable variables, offensive weapons sales at risk
There are also highly unpredictable variables, such as whether, beyond the presidency of US President Donald Trump, which runs until January 2029, Washington will continue to sell Israel any offensive weapons it wishes to purchase.
On Thursday, Zamir blasted the ministry for what he said were politicized and unnecessary fights over budget and side financial issues.
An IDF spokesperson said there were three debates between the IDF and the ministry.
The first is that the IDF said that the ministry was due to have transferred NIS 15b. weeks ago as part of a prior deal and that the funding had been delayed.
Second, another NIS 25b. is due to be transferred imminently, but now the IDF is worried that this funding will be delayed like the earlier NIS 15b.
Third, the sides are stuck not only on the funding that was nominally already agreed to but also on future multi-year funding negotiations.
Currently, estimates have the IDF defense budget up to NIS 160b. per year, around double what it was pre-October 7.
An IDF spokesperson clarified that the NIS 40b. under debate is part of the already-agreed NIS 160b., and not related to new funding requests.
The ministry responded that the IDF should be more judicious in spending its ballooning budget.
In the past, the ministry has also accused the IDF of a mix of waste, carelessness in certain areas of spending, and, in some cases, unpoliced fraud.
The IDF has acknowledged some errors in these areas in the past, but noted that three nearly constant years of war mean its expanded budget cannot be viewed against past budgets, only against the number of fronts Israel has consistently had to fight, or be ready to fight, on.