Terry Lloyd
As recently as the last week in July — when a bill by Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders to halt arms sales to Israel was defeated in the Senate — debate has continued over U.S. military support for Israel. While few doubt that Israel would have struggled to survive decades of invasions and attacks without U.S. aid, the cooperation between the two militaries is far from a one-way street.
Since the late 1960s, Israel has not only received U.S. military hardware but has also improved it — and, in the process, saved American lives. When the U.S. supplied Israel with its front-line fighter-attack aircraft, including the A-4 Skyhawk (Ayit, or “Eagle”) and the F-4 Phantom (Kurnass, or “Heavy Hammer”), the Israeli Air Force (IAF) and local aviation industry quickly made modifications. A tailpipe extension on the A-4 reduced damage from anti-aircraft missile detonations. Adjustments to the F-4’s exhaust eliminated its telltale smoke trail. These enhancements significantly boosted survivability in combat. The U.S. military, to the frustration of many of its own pilots, did not adopt these changes at the time.
Even when U.S.-made equipment was not in use, Israel’s battlefield intelligence proved invaluable during the Cold War. Fighting Soviet-equipped opponents gave the IDF rare insight into Soviet weapons systems, tactics, and doctrine. This knowledge directly benefited the U.S. and NATO. One notable example came in 1966, when Mossad facilitated the defection of an Iraqi Air Force pilot — a Syriac Christian — who flew a Soviet MiG-21 fighter to Israel.
At the time, U.S. pilots in Vietnam were struggling against North Vietnamese MiG-21s. The F-4 Phantom had been designed without a cannon, relying solely on missiles — a decision that proved costly in close combat. Access to the captured Iraqi MiG allowed Israeli test and combat pilots to assess its strengths and weaknesses. They immediately shared this intelligence with the U.S., which soon “borrowed” the aircraft for its own evaluation in early 1968.
The Yom Kippur War of 1973 further demonstrated Israel’s value as a testing ground for U.S. equipment. Syria and Egypt, armed with the latest Soviet SA-5 and SA-6 surface-to-air missile systems, inflicted heavy losses on Israeli aircraft in the opening days. The IAF quickly developed tactics to neutralize these threats — and shared them, including their original Hebrew code names, with U.S. flight crews. Those tactics were integrated into American training and operational doctrine and even influenced Soviet military planning in Europe.
These examples are only part of the story. In the next installment, we will examine how Israel’s first combat use of American aircraft helped preserve peace during the Cold War — in both Europe and Asia.
Terry Lloyd has been a freelance journalist and writer since 2019. Previously, he spent four decades in military and civil aviation and has lived and worked in Europe, Central America, and Asia.
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