Pentagon Awards Boeing $6.8B Contract for F-15 Jets for Israel
By Palestine Chronicle Staff
The announcement came after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida.
The Boeing Company has been awarded an $8.6 billion contract for the F-15 Israel Program, the Pentagon announced on Monday.
“This contract provides for the design, integration, instrumentation, test, production, and delivery of 25 new F-15IA aircraft for the Israeli Air Force with an option for an additional 25 F-15IA aircraft,” it said in a statement, and “involves Foreign Military Sales (FMS) to the State of Israel.”
Work on the program will be performed in the US state of Missouri and is expected to be completed by December 31, 2035, the statement noted.
The announcement came after a meeting between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Florida, where Netanyahu also held closed-door talks with Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.
The Trump administration and that of former President Joe Biden have maintained unwavering military and financial support for Israel, despite widespread protests, Al Mayadeen reported.
Arsenal Used in Regional Wars
According to the Times of Israel, the F-15IA “is the Israeli variant of the advanced F-15EX fighter jet, the latest update of the decades-old F-15, Israel’s most relied-upon fighter aircraft.” It has been used heavily in Israel’s military campaign against Iran, Yemen and Lebanon over the past two years since its genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip began.
The report stated that Israel signed a $5.2billion deal for 25 F-15IA jets last November, to be “supplied in batches of four to six per year,” commencing in 2031.
With the latest deal, another 25 jets will be produced for Israel, “bringing the total number of F-15IAs to 50, adding to the 66 other F-15 variants in the Israeli Air Force’s fleet,” the report noted.
Staggering Death Toll
The Israeli military, with American support, has killed over 71,200 Palestinians, with more than 171,000 wounded, since October 2023. The vast majority of the population has been displaced, and the destruction of infrastructure is unprecedented since World War II. Thousands of people are still missing.
In addition to the military assault, the Israeli blockade has caused a man-made famine, leading to the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians—mostly children—with hundreds of thousands more at risk.
Despite widespread international condemnation, little has been done to hold Israel accountable. The nation is currently under investigation for genocide by the International Court of Justice, while accused war criminals, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, are officially wanted by the International Criminal Court.
(PC, Anadolu)
What’s notable here isn’t just the scale of the contract, but how normalized it has become. Foreign Military Sales operate through standing authorities that allow weapons transfers to proceed as administrative continuity rather than renewed political choice. That structure insulates decisions from public scrutiny even as circumstances change dramatically on the ground. By the time outcomes are debated, the machinery has already moved forward, largely untouched by contemporaneous accountability.