(JNS.org) Israel will be the first U.S. ally to receive the advanced V-22 Osprey tilt-rotor aircraft.
In an address on Thursday in New York, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said that the delivery would be “expedited,” and that Israel “will get six V-22s out of the next order to go on the assembly line, and they will be compatible with other [Israeli defense] capabilities.”
A senior Pentagon official said that Israel would receive the aircraft quicker due to threats it is facing from Iran, Syria, and terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula. The V-22 is unique in that it has a vertical takeoff and landing similar to a helicopter, but flies like a jet, enabling the quick transport of soldiers.