Gotta Sell Those 767s -- Why Not to an Ally?

Never mind that Israel's Air Force shouldn't need the extended range for its own defense -- Boeing thinks that the IAF may need some modern 767-based tankers on lease.

Boeing Integrated Defense Systems president and chief executive James Albaugh told reporters in Tel Aviv on Wednesday that he thinks the deal could be done. He doesn't see logistics as a problem; just funding: "Israel, like many other countries, has funding problems, so we are trying to find creative ways of giving them the possibility of a tanker deal."

He thinks the tankers could be useful in refueling thirsty F-15s, and supporting C-130s, as well, as Israel steps up its state-of-the-art homeland security systems.

An unrefueled F-15 can easily fly across Israel, and back again... and fight in the middle.

It sounds more as though Boeing is counting on the US to make a lot more warplane overflights of Israel in the future, on the way to... somewhere else.

[Trivia: which type was Israel's first combat aircraft? A Bf-109, furnished by Czechoslovakia --ed.]

FMI: www.boeing.com; www.iaf.org