A general perception is that, if Israel can make state of the art main battle tanks like the MK-IV, or some advanced ballistic missiles like the Arrow it could also make its own Stealth plane and be more independent from the US.
Although it is not impossible, but it would probably be a very expensive venture and time consuming to even get closer to F-22/F-35. There is a quantum leap in capabilities needed to go from modifying older existing designs in the past to designing a completely new stealth aircraft.
The U.S. is having a hard time getting the F-35 into production and they have a guaranteed market for at least 2500 aircraft. Israel would be lucky to sell 500 aircraft if they could build it.
Back in the 1980’s, it was not the U.S. that shot down the LAVI, but ISRAEL’S overly ambitious plans for the LAVI. ISRAEL had minimal experience in designing and building high performance jet engines. This resulted in the first costly failure in the LAVI program.They could have tried to build an F-5 class of fighter and succeeded. Instead they aimed at a moving target. The F-16 was a simple aircraft from an avionics point of view, but very sophisticated from every other aspect. Now, 30 years later, it is still winning orders and has evolved into one of the world’s leading multi-role fighters.
Right now, only a handful of countries can DESIGN & BUILD high performance fighter engines like U.S, U.K, FRANCE and RUSSIA. It is a field where experience is the key factor.
Also, the U.S. is not sharing its stealth technology , so it would be tough for ISRAEL to develop an advanced stealth aircraft which is also cost effective.
Both FRANCE and the EADS NATIONS have a great deal of experience with aircraft and yet they only included SOME STEALTH features in the RAFALE and EUROFIGHTER. RUSSIA has still not been able to produce a stealth aircraft.
Only time will tell if Israel can build a stealth fighter jet but the probability of it happening seems fairly minimal.
