March 6,2008:
The recently announced Colombian purchase of 24 Israeli Kfir fighters
deliberately left out another part of the deal, the sale of a aerial tanker.
Israel will also be providing a B767 aircraft converted to provide aerial
refueling of the Kfirs. This is a big deal in light of recent warlike
announcements from Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez (who is upset that Colombia
killed a Colombian leftist rebel leader, of FARC, just across the border in
Ecuador, and captured a laptop containing emails exposing the long, and close,
relationship between Chavez and FARC.)
The second
hand B767 tanker will cost $60 million. Each of the second hand Kfirs will cost
about $8 million. These are 1980s vintage, 16 ton aircraft based on the French Mirage III, but much
upgraded from the original 1970s design. Kfirs can carry six tons of weapons,
fly as high as 75,000 feet, has a max speed of 2,400 kilometers an hour and a
normal operating radius of 700 kilometers. Sorties normally last 2-3 hours, but
with aerial refueling, the Kfirs can take off with a full bomb load, and reach
anywhere inside, say, Venezuela.
Israel
built 185 Kfirs, and still has 120 in storage. Israel has been trying to sell
them as an inexpensive alternative to jets of more recent vintage. Kfirs have
two 30mm cannon built in. The aircraft is
only equipped to use short range, heat seeking air-to-air missiles, but
can also deliver laser and GPS guided smart bombs as well as Maverick and
anti-radiation missiles. Apparently, Colombia will equip the Kfirs with
electronic monitoring pods, to track the movements of leftist rebels and drug
gangs, and then use smart bombs to attack targets in remote areas. The tanker
will enable Kfirs on this kind of duty to stay in the air for eight hours or
more . Delivery of the Kfirs will begin in about a year. Colombia bought 12
Kfirs C7s in 1989 (for about $15 million each), and still has 11 in service.
The new ones will be Kfir C10s, with a new radar, that has a range of 140
kilometers (for air or ground targets.)