Israel just signaled that the era of surgical, limited defense spending is over, replaced by a massive 350 billion shekel ($119 billion) blueprint for a permanent state of high-intensity readiness. On Sunday, May 3, 2026, the Ministerial Committee on Procurement greenlit the purchase of two new fighter squadrons—one fleet of Lockheed Martin F-35I stealth jets and another of Boeing F-15IA advanced strike fighters—marking the most aggressive expansion of the Israeli Air Force (IAF) in decades. This is not a mere equipment refresh. It is a fundamental pivot toward a "Shield of Israel" doctrine designed to ensure the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) can wage multi-front wars against peer adversaries without exhausting their arsenal or losing their technological edge.
The decision doubles down on a dual-platform strategy that military planners once debated with near-religious fervor. For years, the question was whether to prioritize the "invisible" F-35 for deep-penetration strikes or the "heavy-lifting" F-15 for its massive payload and range. The brutal reality of two direct wars with Iran between 2025 and 2026 settled the argument. Israel found it needed both: the F-35 to dismantle sophisticated radar and air defenses, and the F-15IA—the Israeli-spec variant of the F-15EX—to deliver the heavy ordnance required to neutralize hardened targets. Expanding on this theme, you can also read: Why Iran Thinks the US Has No Good Moves Left.
The Iron Logic of the Dual Fleet
By expanding the F-35 fleet toward a target of 100 aircraft and the F-15IA fleet to 50, Israel is building a "high-low" mix on steroids. The F-35 remains the premier tool for the first day of a war. Its stealth allows it to map enemy territory and take out Surface-to-Air Missile (SAM) batteries that would be suicide for older jets to approach. However, stealth comes at the cost of internal weapons carriage. Once the door is kicked down, the IAF needs a "truck."
The F-15IA fills that gap. It can carry upwards of 29,500 pounds of munitions, significantly more than the F-35's internal bays. In the recent June 2025 and early 2026 conflicts, the older F-15 variants were pushed to their airframe limits. Replacing them with the IA version provides the IAF with digital fly-by-wire systems, the world’s fastest mission computer, and a suite of Israeli-made electronic warfare systems that the U.S. allows few other allies to integrate. Observers at Reuters have also weighed in on this trend.
Breaking the Munitions Dependency
While the headlines focus on the airframes, the true story lies in the "Shield of Israel" plan’s emphasis on domestic production. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz have been blunt: Israel can no longer risk being held hostage by foreign supply chains during a long-term conflict. A significant portion of the $119 billion budget is earmarked for the local manufacture of smart bombs, missiles, and loitering munitions.
This shift follows a period of extreme tension. Even with the current ceasefire in place since April 8, the blockade of Iranian ports and the underlying volatility of the region mean that a 10-day war can easily turn into a 10-month war of attrition. By moving production in-house, Israel aims to decouple its tactical survival from the political winds in Washington, even as it remains tethered to American hardware.
Beyond the Atmosphere
This procurement is also the first public step toward a military presence in space. The Defense Ministry has confirmed that these new squadrons will integrate "next-generation defense systems" that include space-based surveillance and communication nodes. The goal is to move beyond terrestrial air superiority and establish a dominant position in the "high ground" above the atmosphere, where Iranian satellite and missile tracking systems operate.
The financial scale is staggering. To put 350 billion shekels in perspective, it represents a radical departure from the pre-October 7 budget norms, where defense spending hovered under 100 billion shekels annually. The Israeli taxpayer is now funding a permanent wartime economy, betting that the cost of overwhelming force is lower than the cost of a prolonged, under-equipped struggle.
The Industrial Timeline
Delivery schedules are the one area where strategy meets cold reality. The F-35s from the 2023 order are expected to begin arriving in 2028, with this latest squadron likely following in the early 2030s. The F-15IA timeline is even more distant, with the first deliveries not expected until 2031.
This creates a "capability gap" that the IAF must bridge by over-maintaining its aging fleet of F-16s and 1970s-era F-15s. The gamble is that the current ceasefire holds long enough for these new assets to reach the tarmac. If it doesn't, Israel will be fighting the next war with the ghosts of the last one while waiting for the future to arrive.
The mission is to ensure the IDF can operate anywhere, at any time, against any combination of threats. This $119 billion spend is the price of that certainty. It turns the Israeli Air Force into a force that doesn't just respond to threats but preemptively outmatches them through sheer technological and industrial mass.
