Good afternoon friends of the forum, today I want to talk to you about the possibility of Israel getting Chile as a sub tree, this is an idea that has been mentioned many times in different topics within the forum, I myself am the creator of the Chilean sub trees for Israel within the suggestions area and today the suggestion of the Chilean aerial sub tree is the most voted and with the highest approval for an individual nation (not a coalition) surpassing today the 700 votes, also the terrestrial sub tree already has 800 votes demonstrating that Chile is one of the most popular options if not the most popular to be added to Israel.
Before delving into the history between Chile and Israel, I would like to give some context about Chile’s extensive military history and the aircraft that were operated by Chile in the beginning and that would allow Israel to expand to rank 1.
The Chilean air force was born in 1930 (94 years) and was the first in Latin America, for this reason it has a very long history of military purchases. Due to its excellent relations with Germany, in the beginning, almost entirely only aircraft from that country were operated, especially Junkers bombers and Arado seaplanes. There were also some purchases in Italy, such as Breda airplanes. This changed when the Second World War broke out, where due to the impossibility of obtaining spare parts and due to pressure from the United States, Chile would begin to use North American material almost entirely due to the PAM (mutual aid pact) where the United States would send material for free to Chile and other Latin American countries to protect America from the axis countries.
Entering the jet age in 1953, Chile began using British material, purchasing the Vampire from Great Britain and shortly after the North American T-33A and F-80C, the latter being used by a few American countries. Already in 1966 the British Hawker Hunters were purchased and in 1974 the F-5 Tiger II, these two fighters being the main means of defending Chile when it was almost at war with its neighbors at the end of the 70s. It is during these years where the rapprochements between Chile and Israel would begin, which we will detail later. As you can see, the Chilean material was extensive and of quality at all times.
As mentioned previously, relations between Chile and Israel would begin in the 1970s at a time when Chile would have an embargo on military purchases by the United States and would leave Chile in a critical situation due to the impossibility of purchasing spare parts or military material even in Europe. This was tremendously problematic since a war was looming with Chile’s 3 neighboring countries, only 2 countries were willing to help Chile, these being Brazil and Israel. Thus, in 1977, Chile and Israel signed a contract for various military materials, highlighting the Shafrir II missiles that would arm the Hawker Hunters and the purchase of the Israeli M-50 and M-51 Super Sherman tanks. Before the arrival of these new Israeli tanks, Chile only had old M4A1E9 Shermans and M41 Walker Bulldogs and not very good tank doctrine.
Once the new tanks arrived in Chile, experienced Israeli instructors who had participated in the 6-day war and the Yom Kippur War traveled to Chile to form a new tank doctrine in the country, which was very valuable for Chile. Also within military sales, Chile purchased from Israel the new 60 mm IMI HVMS cannons capable of firing APFSDS-T ammunition at high speed, installing this new cannon on Chile’s M-50 and M24 tanks, thus creating the most powerful variants ever created in the history of service of these tanks in any other nation, thus giving rise to the M-50 HVMS Super Sherman and the M24 HVMS Super Chaffee capable of confronting tanks as powerful for the time as the Soviet T-55/T-62.
It is worth mentioning that the M-50 HVMS and the M24 HVMS were suggested in the forum to be added to the game and they already passed to the developers a few months ago so perhaps in the future we will possibly see them in the Israeli tree as an event/premium vehicle, another curiosity is that within the game there is already an official Chilean skin for one of the Israeli vehicles, this being the M-51 (W) premium.
After having overcome the years of almost having gone to war with neighboring countries, Chile continued working with Israel on various fighter modernization programs, the first of which was the creation of a new Mirage variant, modifying Chile’s Mirage 50 to a standard similar to that of an Israeli Kfir C.7, giving rise to Chile’s Mirage Pantera, armed with Israeli Python III missiles.
Another important modification was that of the F-5 Tiger II being sent to Israel to be modernized under the IAI package called F-5 Plus, now renamed F-5 Tiger III Plus, making them one of the most powerful F-5s in the world, armed with Derby and Python IV missiles, being used to this day by the Chilean Air Force.
Currently, Chile and Israel continue to cooperate in all existing military areas (army, aviation, naval) and multiple high-ranking authorities have traveled to each other’s countries, further strengthening the ties that have existed for decades. Also, a large part of the Chilean weapons is made up of Israeli material (assault rifles, missiles, howitzers, mortars, rocket artillery, military vehicles).
Commander-in-Chief of the Chilean Navy, Admiral Enrique Larrañaga with the Commander of the Israeli Navy, Vice Admiral Ram Rothberg, at the Haifa Naval Base during a visit, 2014
But now I would like to know what you think, do you think Chile will arrive as a sub tree for Israel in future updates of the game?.
Below I leave you the Chilean sub trees for Israel that I made within the forum where you can find more information about the different vehicles that Israel could get with Chile and detailed descriptions of each one, as well as the votes for each one:
With this I say goodbye and I would like you to leave your comments about what you think about all this, although obviously in a polite manner.
