This has been going on already for a long time. Components of the Arrow interceptor missiles are built and provided by American contractors. We sell them special-configuration versions of our fighter airplanes (so they can plug in their own subsystems).
We have done the same. In the 1970s, the U.S. licensed the ROLAND 2 anti-aircrat missile, built by Euromissile, for production here. We obtained all the technical data and had to learn how to produce it under our own methodology. We did a good job (and earned more profit on shared cost savings than from the contract fee), but the system was not fielded in number and was discontinued.
Security control systems are quite adequate to segregate licensed production from other production streams. It is all the "paperwork" that people like to decry. "Minimal oversight" is a fable. The U.S. is quite jealous about its technical jewels and only provides information or hardware up to the point where we judge the customer already knows how to do the job, but it is cheaper for them and profitable for us to provide the finished product. On Israel's side, they frequently reserve the most complicated and sensitive systems for themselves, so they would not be hamstrung by information limitations or disclosure of secret details.
This has been going on already for a long time. Components of the Arrow interceptor missiles are built and provided by American contractors. We sell them special-configuration versions of our fighter airplanes (so they can plug in their own subsystems).
We have done the same. In the 1970s, the U.S. licensed the ROLAND 2 anti-aircrat missile, built by Euromissile, for production here. We obtained all the technical data and had to learn how to produce it under our own methodology. We did a good job (and earned more profit on shared cost savings than from the contract fee), but the system was not fielded in number and was discontinued.
Security control systems are quite adequate to segregate licensed production from other production streams. It is all the "paperwork" that people like to decry. "Minimal oversight" is a fable. The U.S. is quite jealous about its technical jewels and only provides information or hardware up to the point where we judge the customer already knows how to do the job, but it is cheaper for them and profitable for us to provide the finished product. On Israel's side, they frequently reserve the most complicated and sensitive systems for themselves, so they would not be hamstrung by information limitations or disclosure of secret details.