Knesset committee checks out F-35 in Washington

Four members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee visited Lockheed Martin headquarters in Washington, D.C., the spokesperson for the committee says.

Knesset members at the Lockheed Martin headquarters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday, January 26, 2016 (Courtesy Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee)

Representatives from the US Air Force showed the visiting parliamentarians — Likud MKs Tzachi Hanegbi and Avi Dichter, Yesh Atid MK Ofer Shelach and Labor MK Omer Bar-Lev — the work being done on the new $100 million F-35 fighter jets, the first of which are supposed to be delivered to Israel by the end of the year.

Hanegbi, Dichter, Shelav and Bar-Lev discussed the fighter jet’s capabilities and expected supply date with USAF General Chris Bogdan, who is managing the F-35 project, the spokesperson says.

— Judah Ari Gross