Tel Aviv. The Directorate of International Defense Cooperation, SIBAT, in the Israel Ministry of Defense (IMoD) has sold 29 surplus F-16 aircraft to TOP ACES, a North American company.

These will be employed as Adversary Aircraft for US Air Force training. The agreement amounts to tens of millions of dollars.

Following lengthy negotiations led by SIBAT and the Israel Air Force, the Director General of the Israel Ministry of Defense, Maj Gen (Res) Amir Eshel signed an unprecedented agreement for the sale of 29 F-16 A/B fighter jets to TOP ACES. The company will supply adversary air services for US Air Force pilot training.

As part of the agreement, the first four fighter jets were delivered to the US on January 27, in an Antonov cargo plane.

TOP ACES is a privately owned company and adversary air provider to the Canadian and German armed forces. The company employs a growing team of 270+ highly skilled personnel based in the geographies where the clients are based.

The company employs more than 40 fighter pilots from the Canadian, German and American armed forces and 80 per cent of them are Top Gun Fighter Weapons School graduates.

-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist