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Source: https://spencerguard.substack.com/p/what-does-america-get-for-38-billion
What America Gets for $3.8 Billion in Military Aid to Israel - and the Way Ahead
(Substack) Maj. (ret.) John Spencer - Many of the benefits America receives from Israel would continue even if the aid disappeared tomorrow. Israel shares intelligence, develops military technologies, and confronts common adversaries because the two countries share interests, threats, and a decades-long strategic partnership. The assistance helped build and strengthen a strategic partnership that now generates enormous value for both countries. Does any other recipient of American military assistance provide as much in return? The U.S. provides military assistance through a program which allows partner nations to purchase American-made military equipment. Egypt receives $1.3 billion annually in military aid. Jordan receives almost half a billion. Almost all of the military assistance provided to Israel is spent in the U.S. The money does not leave the American economy. It circulates through American factories, American supply chains, and American workers. In practice, much of what critics describe as foreign aid flows directly to American defense companies. Israel is the largest international operator of the F-35 fighter aircraft, produced by Lockheed Martin in Fort Worth, Texas. Israel also purchases American helicopters, precision-guided munitions, communications systems, radar equipment, engines, and other military technology. The U.S. and Israel cooperate on missile defense programs in which American companies manufacture major components, American engineers participate in development, and American military organizations benefit directly from the resulting technologies and operational knowledge. The Trophy Active Protection System, developed by Israel and proven in combat against anti-tank missiles, has been integrated onto U.S. Army Abrams tanks and other vehicles to help protect American crews. American engineers and military planners have benefited from Israeli advances in missile defense, F-35 operational experience, battlefield medicine innovations, counter-drone technologies, tunnel warfare, and artificial intelligence applications for intelligence fusion, target recognition, and battlefield decision-making. The U.S. maintains alliances because they reduce risk, strengthen deterrence, expand influence, and help protect American interests. Israel has filled that role for decades in one of the world's most important and unstable regions. Israel confronts threats from Iran and its proxies every day with its own military, its own resources, and its own political leadership. Former Secretary of State Alexander Haig once described Israel as an American aircraft carrier in the Middle East. Israel secures itself. Israel funds the overwhelming majority of its own defense. Israel fields one of the world's most capable militaries and routinely acts against threats that concern Washington as much as Jerusalem. Israeli intelligence has contributed to efforts that protect American personnel, diplomatic facilities, and interests overseas, while helping disrupt terrorist plots and weapons proliferation networks before they reached American targets. The writer is chair of urban warfare studies at West Point's Modern War Institute.