TEL AVIV – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is urging leaders from the region and around the world to pool resources and establish a multinational airborne force for fighting wildfires.

"I am initiating the establishment of a multi-national force that will be coordinated not just for action in time of disaster, but also to acquire planes and allocate the acquisition of various types of planes so that we might thereby achieve multinational effectiveness, and not just national effectiveness, in dealing with gigantic fires," Netanyahu told Cabinet ministers on Sunday.

Following five days of fires that raged throughout the country, Netanyahu expressed gratitude to the dozen of nations who lent manpower and air assets to help quell the blazes and the many more who offered assistance.

According to Israel's Foreign Ministry, nations that collectively contributed more than 20 fixed-wing and rotary aircraft included Azerbaijan, Croatia, Cyprus, Egypt, France, Greece, Italy, Romania, Russia, Spain, Turkey, the US and Ukraine.

Others that offered to help included Austria, Belarus, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Georgia, Great Britain, Jordan, Portugal, Slovakia, Switzerland and the Netherlands.

According to Netanyahu, several regional leaders with whom he spoke were receptive to the proposed multinational airborne firefighting force. "I must say that they have shown great interest in the idea and we will advance it," he said.

Netanyahu's office declined to provide cost estimates or other details of the proposed force, nor was it able to provide a list of leaders with whom the prime minister had spoken. In interviews here, defense and industry sources involved in similar deals in the past said they were never approached for input on Netanyahu's plan.

Many noted, however, that the Defense Ministry may no longer be involved in the planning, since responsibility for the airborne firefighting mission transitioned earlier this month from the Israel Air Force to the Israel Police, which is overseen by the Public Security Ministry.

Israel's fixed- and rotary-wing firefighting force is provided to the government under a private financing initiative with Elbit Systems, which provides air assets, personnel and maintenance services on a power-by-the-hour leasing-type arrangement.

Netanyahu ordered the formation of Israel's firefighting aerial force in 2011 in response to deadly wildfires in December 2010 that claimed the lives of 44 people and forced the evacuation of some 17,000 residents of the Mt. Carmel area north of Haifa.

Under the MoD award to Elbit, the Haifa-based firm contracted with Olney, Texas-based Air Tractor for eight AT-802F single-engine air tankers. A follow-on order for another six was implemented last year, bringing Israel's fixed-wing firefighting force to 14 aircraft.

Since then, the firm has supplemented Israel's force with Airbus helicopters; all of which it will operate under the auspices of the Israel police and the Public Security Ministry.

About Barbara Opall-Rome

Opall-Rome is Israel bureau chief for Defense News. She has been covering U.S.-Israel strategic cooperation, Mideast security and missile defense since May 1988. She lives north of Tel Aviv. Visit her website at www.opall-rome.com.

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