The United States has offered to add Israeli systems and munitions to a new US-built fighter jet and deliver it to Israel by 2015, provided a deal is sealed in coming months.

Lockheed Martin Corp, maker of the radar-evading F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, would tie in Israeli-built command, control, communications, computer and intelligence systems for a unique version of the jet for sale to Israel, Jon Schreiber, a senior Pentagon program official, told Reuters Monday.

The United States also would integrate bombs that use an Israeli precision guidance kit called Spice along with Python 5 air-to-air missiles made by Israel's Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., Schreiber said in an interview.

In addition, he said, Israel would get a relatively inexpensive path for hardware and software upgrades to add future weapons.

On the other hand, the United States does not plan for now to put an Israeli electronic warfare system aboard the F-35, which is in early stages of production.

"Some time in the future, if policy changes, or things change, that could change as well," said Schreiber, who heads the F-35 program's international program for the Pentagon.

Dropping plans for incorporating electronic warfare systems would be a significant switch for Israel, which bought modified US-built F-15s and F-16s to incorporate such know-how.

The Pentagon and Lockheed Martin are eager to wrap up an F-35 deal with Israel, which is tentatively planning to buy an initial 25 F-35s in fiscal 2012 with an option for 50 more.

The single-engine aircraft, designed to avoid detection by radar, could play a role in any Israeli effort to knock out what it regards as the threat to its existence posed by Iran's nuclear program.

... contd.