By Ann Roosevelt
U.S.-Israeli cooperative missile-defense programs would receive $415.1 million in the final Continuing Resolution (CR) legislation for fiscal year 2011.
The CR provides funding to keep the federal government operating for the remainder of the fiscal year.
For FY ’12, the Missile Defense Agency (MDA) requested $106.1 million for Israeli Cooperative programs, including Arrow System improvement and the David’s Sling Weapon System, Army Lt. Gen. Patrick O’Reilly, MDA director, told the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee March 31 in prepared remarks.
Further, O’Reilly told committee members, “We completed U.S. and Israeli Government project agreements on the Arrow 3 Upper Tier Interceptor, the David’s Sling Weapon System, and an Israeli Test Bed.”
The pending CR provides that $205 million would go to procure Israel’s Iron Dome defense system to counter short-range rocket threats.
Earlier this month, the developmental Iron Dome mobile air defense system made its first interception of an enemy rocket headed toward an Israeli city, Israel’s defense ministry said (Defense Daily, April 8).
For several years, the United States has provided financial support for the Iron Dome system, which is under development by Israel’s Rafael. Iron Dome is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells, to counter the rocket threat to the nation’s civilian population.
The CR would provide another $84.7 million for the Short Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD) program, including cruise missile defense research and development.
The amount of $58.96 million would be made available for an upper tier component of the Israeli Missile Defense Architecture.
Another $66.4 million would be provided for the Arrow System Improvement Program, including the development of a long-range, ground and airborne detection suite. Of that amount, $12 million would be to produce Arrow missile components in the United States and Arrow missile components in Israel to meet Israel’s defense requirements, consistent with each nation’s laws, regulations and procedures.
Most recently, in February, the Arrow missile defense system successfully intercepted a threat-representative ballistic missile target at the U.S. Naval Air Warfare Center, Weapons Division-Pt. Mugu Sea Range (Defense Daily, Feb. 24). The test represented a realistic scenario, according to the two governments, which said all the elements of the system “performed in their operational configuration.”
The main contractor for the integration and the development of Arrow is the MLM division of the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI). The radar is developed by ELTA Industries, and the battle management system is made by Tadiran Electronic Systems Ltd.
Boeing [BA] and IAI co-produce the Arrow II interceptor and are developing the Arrow 3 interceptor for the Israel Ministry of Defense.