An air-to-air right side view of a F-21A Kfir aircraft, November 1, 1985. Wikimedia commons
Business Insider/We Are The Mighty: This Israeli fighter jet was so good the US Marines used it as an aggressor in training
* The IAI Kfir was built by the Israelis out of necessity to combat Russian-made MiG-23s.
* The Kfir performed so well that the USMC adopted it for use as an aggressor to train its pilots what to do in a dogfight.
* The Kfir has also been adopted by Peru, Ecuador, and Colombia.
Israel faced a problem in the 1970s. The Yom Kippur War had seen them take heavy aircraft losses. They needed more planes – and they wanted to get some better performance as well. After all, Syria was acquiring advanced MiG-23s (the Flogger was advanced at the time).
The Israelis had been forced to steal the plans for the Mirage 5 from France after an arms embargo. Mossad had managed to get the Mirage 5 plans in a very brilliant operation, but it was just an interim solution.
Israel built 50 Neshers, which correlated to the number of aircraft it had ordered from France. The Nesher was flown by Giora Epstein when he took on 11 MiGs by himself.
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WNU Editor: Israel's military capabilities is always surprising me.
Hat tip to Fred for this link.