Israel will buy six V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel made the announcement during his keynote address at the 100th annual Anti-Defamation League meeting, calling Israel’s self-defense capabilities and its qualitative military edge “central to both Israel and U.S. security interests.”
“Israel will get six V-22s out of the next order to go on the assembly line, and they will be compatible with other [Israeli defense force] capabilities,” he said. “The Israeli and American defense relationship is stronger than ever.”
With Afghanistan winding down, Hagel said, “we continue to face a complicated and volatile world. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the Middle East, where the United States and our allies are facing an unprecedented set of complex challenges.”
For Israel, the secretary noted, progress with one neighbor tends to bring new threats from other directions. “There are no margins for Israel,” he said.
