Eurasia Press & News
Exclusive: The UK government suspended fighter jet exports to Israel but still allows the sale of parts which help Israeli pilots learn to fly F-35s and F-16s.
Israeli fighter pilots are being trained with UK equipment, Declassified and The Ditch can reveal.
Cargo documents show that an engineering firm in Wolverhampton named Moog has sent at least ten shipments to Israel’s Hatzerim airbase since December.
The shipments were addressed to a site within the airbase known as Lavi, which appears to refer to a model of plane named after the Hebrew word for a young lion.
The M-346 Lavi is a high-performance aircraft designed to train Israeli pilots to fly advanced fighter jets including the F-16 and F-35.
Last year, Israeli forces used F-16 fighter jets to bomb a residential compound in Gaza housing UK charity Medical Aid for Palestinians, injuring four British doctors.
F-35s have also been used to commit war crimes in Gaza, including an airstrike on a designated safe zone which killed 90 people. They were deployed during Israel’s recent airstrikes on Iran.
Moog designed the flight control system for the M-346 Lavi, and provides maintenance services for the aircraft.
The shipping documents reveal how Britain continues to support Israel’s fighter jet programme even after the Labour government introduced restrictions on arms sales last September.
The restrictions did not include components for “trainer aircraft”, meaning the UK government has attempted to create a distinction between exports for Israel’s fighter jets and supplies which help pilots to fly them.
Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT) spokesperson Emily Apple told Declassified: “This is a disgusting level of complicity”.
She added: “This is the UK government directly enabling Israel to continue committing genocide. It is facilitating training the pilots to fly the combat aircraft that are dropping 2000lb bombs on children”.
Jeremy Corbyn MP also responded to the revelation, saying: “Last week, the government blocked my Gaza (Independent Public Inquiry) Bill in Parliament. We know why: the government does not want the public to know the full scale of its complicity in one of the greatest crimes of our time”.
M-346 Lavi
Israel’s first M-346 Lavi was delivered in 2014, with an additional 29 arriving over the following two years. They are hosted at Hatzerim airbase near Be’er Sheva.
Promotional content shows how the jet not only trains pilots to fly, but also helps them master combat techniques. It is equipped with a “digital avionics system” which is modelled on advanced military aircraft such as the F-16, F-22 and F-35.
Its cockpit includes a head-up display which is common in fighter jets, and the aircraft can be armed with practice air-to-ground bombs and a gun pod for live fire training.
One of the first instructors to use the jet, Brigadier General Avi Maor, has said: “It’s very easy to make the transition from the M-346 to a real jet fighter because it’s very similar to the fighters.
“You learn how to fight and then do the transition to the real fighter. You don’t need to learn how to fight again with the real fighter, so you save a lot of hours”.
By 2022, the Israeli air force had racked up 50,000 flight hours with the M-346, making it the largest user of the jet in the world.
Moog
Moog has sent at least ten shipments to Hatzerim airbase since December 2024, the shipping documents show. Three of those shipments occurred last month.
The delivery address corresponds to the airbase’s Lavi site, which is operated by Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms firm. Elbit helps to manage the supply, maintenance, and overhaul of spare parts for the M-346.
Declassified and The Ditch estimate that the total value of the shipments could be over £1m.
Moog declined to comment.
In addition to supplying parts for the M-346 Lavi, Moog has contributed to the global F-35 programme.
“We maintain positions on numerous high priority programs, including the Lockheed Martin F-35 Lightning II”, the company’s annual report for 2024 observes.
Previous annual reports note how Moog “provides actuators, power drive electronics, control electronics and software” for the F-35 fighter jet.
Moog Wolverhampton was on the most recent list of UK-based companies which have received arms export licences for the international F-35 programme.
Last month, the High Court in London ruled that the government could continue to export F-35 parts to Israel provided they went via a third country.
Emily Apple from CAAT said Britain’s supplies for Israeli trainer jets “makes a mockery out of the government’s already outrageous argument that the only reason it is continuing to supply F-35 spare parts is due to the threat of national security”.
She added: “It couldn’t be clearer that this government doesn’t care about international law. It doesn’t care that Israel is committing genocide, and it doesn’t care about Palestinian lives.
“All this government cares about is safeguarding arms dealers’ profits, and it is down to all of us to hold them accountable for these horrific, immoral and illegal deals”.
Declassified has previously revealed that the UK has shipped parts to Israel for another model of trainer aircraft used by its military.
