Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger | “Second Thought: a US-Israel Initiative” | April 9, 2026
Blackhawk helicopters. Screengrab via Youtube
*Israel’s unique challenges and brainpower have made it a critical platform for research & development centers of some 250 US commercial high tech giants (e.g., Google, John Deere, Nvidia, Microsoft, Facebook, Dell, Apple, Texas Instruments, Intel, Johnson & Johnson, Intuit, General Electric), which have leveraged Israel’s capabilities, in order to bolster their global leadership, generating mega-billion of dollars to the US economy.
*Similarly, Israel has served as the largest and the most intense research & development center and battle-tested laboratory for the US defense and aerospace industries, which have leveraged Israel’s capabilities in order to enhance their advantage over the global competition. Thus, generating many more billions of dollars to the US economy through research & development savings, increased exports, expanded employment and augmented income tax revenues (as documented here and here).
*Israel’s uniquely intense national security challenges have made it the chief innovation center for the US Armed Forces, sharing its unique operational do-or-die battle tactics with the US military, which rarely experiences do-or-die challenges.
*For example, Israel’s unprecedented intense operational use of Boeing’s Apache helicopter (since 1990) and Lockheed-Marting’s Black Hawk helicopter (since 1994) has improved the quality and survivability of both platforms, generating substantial R&D cost savings through battle-tested validation, buttressing the export reputation of both choppers, enlarging employment and increasing both corporate and individual income tax revenues.
*This has been the case with some 100 advanced US military systems, which have been supplied to – and upgraded by – Israel, attesting to the mutually-beneficial two-way-street relationship between the US and Israel.
*Israel’s intense combat experience and defense industry capabilities have yielded upgraded avionics and bolstered survivability of the Apache chopper. Examples are the enhancement of the communications suite, management system, combat network system, advanced missile warning – and missile defense – systems, electronic warfare and countermeasures dispensers and high-tech sensors, that Boeing would otherwise need to develop and test purely in (non-battle-tested) simulated environments at far greater cost.
*Israel has functioned as a cost-sharing, battle-tested partner for the US defense and aerospace industries, saving the latter some 10 years of research & development, which amount to mega-billion of dollars. For instance, the total research & development cost was $16BN in 2026 dollars for the Apache and $21BN for the Blackhawk.
*Israel’s systematically effective combat use of Boeing’s Apache and Lockheed-Martin’s Black Hawk has contributed to their reputation (as it has done for Lockheed-Martin’s F-35 and F-16 and Boeing’s F-15), increasing the export of these choppers, especially the Apache, which has become a global export success. Israel has served as a global showroom, that underscores their advantage over competitors. The Apache ($35MN-$40MN per unit) has been exported to Poland ($10BN in 2023), Britain ($2.3BN in 2024), South Korea ($3.5BN in 2024), the Netherlands, Greece, Japan, Singapore, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, and Morocco. The Black Hawk ($25MN-$30MN per unit) has been exported to Australia ($2BN in 2022), Greece ($2Bn in 2024), Austria ($1BN in 2024), Brazil ($1BN in 2024), Sweden ($1BN in 2024), Poland, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Saudi Arabia, the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Mexico, Lithuania, Norway, Latvia, Morocco, Turkey, Thailand, Chile, Egypt, Colombia, Bahrain, Singapore, Slovakia, Denmark, Tunisia and Croatia.
*The Apache and the Black Hawk are experiencing historic export demand. For instance, the Apache’s recent approved exports for 2023-2026 to Poland, South Korea, Israel, Egypt, Kuwait exceed $20 billion. The Black Hawk’s approved exports to Greece, Sweden, Austria, Brazil, Australia, and others has reached $8–10 billion over 2023-2026.
*The aforementioned data highlights Israel as the top force and dollar multiplier for the US. Moreover, this data underscores the fact that the US does not extend a $3.8BN foreign aid to – but makes an annual low/no risk investment in – Israel, which yields an R-o-I (Return-on-Investment) of a few hundred percent – the highest R-o-I on investments made by the USA.
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