On Thursday, March 28, the Israeli Ministry of Defense announced on social media the commencement of accelerated deliveries of multipurpose armored vehicles JLTV (Joint Light Tactical Vehicles) for the domestic Defense Forces (Tsva ha-Hagana le-Yisra’el) from the United States. Two agreements in this regard were concluded with Oshkosh Defense on December 1, 2023
Photo: Israel’s Ministry of Defense, via X
The Israeli Ministry of Defense continues its round-the-clock procurement of weapons for the IDF to enable it to sustain the fight. The Director General of the Ministry of Defense, retired Colonel Eyal Zamir, who is on a working visit to the USA accompanied by Defense Minister Yoav Galant, visited a delegation from the Procurement Office, located in New York, where an assessment of the situation regarding the continuation of supply operations and subsequent transport to Israel is being conducted.
The Director General visited the logistics center together with the head of the delegation, Brigadier General (retired) Michel Ben Baruch, and conducted a review of the tools purchased by the ministry, including the multipurpose armored vehicles JLTV produced by the American company Oshkosh. This is another vehicle of the Israel Defense Forces that will gradually replace the HMMWV vehicles.
During the week, Director General Zamir held working meetings with his counterparts at the Pentagon and discussed with them future procurement plans and the continuation of deliveries to support military efforts – reads the Israeli Ministry of Defense’s social media posts.
According to information from December of last year, the first agreement, executed through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) program via the United States Department of Defense, covers 75 units of undisclosed variant vehicles for $29 million USD, with a completion deadline by the end of September 2025. The second agreement, on the other hand, is being executed through the Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) program directly with the manufacturer and covers several dozen additional units. The value of the second agreement was not disclosed.
It is worth mentioning that on November 15th of last year, unofficial information appeared in American media with a list of military equipment and armaments that the United States provided to Israel in connection with the ongoing war with Hamas. The list included 75 JLTV vehicles, marking the first public mention that the Jewish state is joining the JLTV user community.
The production of JLTV vehicles passed the 20,000 mark. So far, in addition to the United States Armed Forces being the main user (with plans to purchase a total of approximately 65,000 vehicles), and now Israel, the following countries have decided to purchase JLTV vehicles: Montenegro, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Slovenia, Slovakia, Romania, Belgium, and Brazil. Recently, Mongolia and Israel have also joined them. Potential future users may include the United Kingdom, Greece, Portugal, and Poland (which expressed interest in purchasing 26 armored vehicles in the M1279A1 transport variant). A few days ago, AM General, which has become a co-producer of the vehicles, presented the improved JLTV A2.
When it comes to 4×4 tactical vehicles, the Israeli Defense Forces use Wolf Armored Vehicle (approximately 300 units), AIL Storm (approximately 700), HMMWV (over 2000), MDT David (approximately 400), and Plasan SandCat (79).
Recently, Congress approved packages for Israel consisting of 155mm high-explosive artillery shells M107 and M795, 120mm tank ammunition M830A1 HEAT-MP-T. There have been recent media reports about the approval of the sale of 25 F-35I Adir multi-role aircraft, 1800 Mark 84 general-purpose bombs weighing 909 kg (2000 pounds), and 500 Mark 82 general-purpose bombs weighing 227 kg (500 pounds), as well as considerations regarding the sale of up to 50 Boeing F-15EX Eagle II multi-role aircraft along with precision-guided air-to-air and air-to-ground missiles.
רכבי שטח חדשים, שרכש משרד הביטחון עבור צה"ל, בדרכם לישראל.
מנכ"ל משרד הביטחון, אלוף (מיל') אייל זמיר, ששוהה בביקור עבודה בארה"ב כחלק מביקור שר הביטחון, יואב גלנט, ביקר במשלחת הרכש של המשרד בניו-יורק וקיים הערכת מצב על המשך מבצע הרכש והשינוע לישראל.
להמשך: https://t.co/IYPTj2lkyZ pic.twitter.com/wirBgRyzU2— משרד הביטחון (@MoDIsrael) March 28, 2024