What the Pentagon Actually Awarded Boeing
On December 29, 2025, the U.S. government awarded Boeing a contract with a ceiling of $8,577,700,000 for what the Pentagon describes as the “F-15 Israel Program.” The contract covers the design, integration, instrumentation, test, production, and delivery of 25 new F-15IA aircraft for the Israeli Air Force, with an option for an additional 25 aircraft.
The public contract notice specifies that the work will occur in St. Louis, Missouri, and performance is scheduled to run through December 31, 2035. The same notice identifies the award as a hybrid contract combining cost-plus-fixed-fee, fixed-price incentive, and firm-fixed-price elements, with approximately $840 million in Foreign Military Sales funds obligated at the time of award.
This matters because the headline figure is easy to misunderstand.
The $8.58 billion is not a single check the U.S. Treasury writes to Boeing “for Israel.” It is the maximum value of a U.S.-managed procurement contract that covers the aircraft and the associated work the U.S. government includes in a Foreign Military Sales case, such as integration, testing, and long-lead production.
What “Foreign Military Sales” Means
This purchase is structured as a Foreign Military Sale, or FMS. In plain English, FMS is the U.S. government’s government-to-government system for selling U.S. defense articles and services to partner nations. Under FMS, the U.S. government uses its own acquisition system to procure items on a partner’s behalf, rather than the partner contracting directly with a defense company.
That structure is why the Pentagon, not Israel, signs the contract with Boeing and pays Boeing as the work proceeds. Israel is still the buyer in the real-world sense because Israel pays the U.S. government through the FMS case. The U.S. government then pays the contractor under the Pentagon-run contract.
Who Will Pay for the Jets
Israel pays the United States under the FMS case, but the key detail is where Israel gets much of the purchasing power. Israel typically finances major U.S. weapons purchases using Foreign Military Financing, or FMF, which is taxpayer-funded security assistance Congress appropriates and the executive branch administers. The U.S. government publicly states that, consistent with the current memorandum of understanding, it “annually provides $3.3 billion in FMF” and additional funding for cooperative missile defense programs.
In other words, Israel commonly pays the U.S. government for these FMS purchases using U.S.-provided grant assistance. That is why it is accurate to say, in plain English, that Israel pays for the jets with American money: Congress appropriates the funds, the U.S. provides FMF to Israel, Israel uses that FMF to pay the U.S. government through the FMS system, and the U.S. government pays Boeing under the contract. The Pentagon’s contract announcement reinforces that structure by identifying the obligated funds as Foreign Military Sales funds.
The recurring FMF baseline is not informal. The U.S. government publicly described the 10-year framework as $38 billion (including $33 billion in FMF) disbursed in equal increments of $3.8 billion per year, plus separate missile-defense funding, in the fact sheet on the memorandum of understanding. Congressional reporting summarizes the same framework and emphasizes it operates “subject to congressional appropriations,” including in the CRS Israel relations report and the broader CRS product page for Israel aid.
Israel can add its own national funds if needed, and FMS can be financed by national funds or U.S. funds. The dominant point for U.S. readers remains that the main financing pipeline for purchases of this scale is U.S. taxpayer appropriations routed through FMF.
Why Numbers Can Look Inconsistent
You may see lower figures cited elsewhere for Israel’s aircraft purchase, while the Pentagon contract ceiling sits at $8.58 billion. Those figures do not necessarily conflict because an FMS case and its associated contract vehicle often cover more than just the airframes. A Pentagon-run procurement can include integration, testing, support, training, and other elements that the U.S. government folds into the overall package it administers, consistent with how FMS is described in the FMS FAQ. The ceiling is the maximum contract value of the U.S.-managed vehicle, not a guarantee of the final total spent.
What to Watch
The contract includes an option for up to 25 additional aircraft, but an option is not automatic. Whether that option is exercised will turn on Israeli force-structure decisions, available financing, and, on the U.S. side, the continued congressional appropriations that sustain the annual FMF baseline.
Strip away the acronyms, and the structure is straightforward. Boeing is paid by the U.S. government under a Pentagon contract. Israel buys the aircraft through a U.S.-run Foreign Military Sales case. Israel typically pays for purchases like this using U.S. taxpayer-funded Foreign Military Financing approved by Congress.
