Congress deepens US-Israel missile alliance

U. S. Congress released Nov. 9 an annual defense bill that calls for $705 million for Israel’s missile defense program, a tacit acknowledgment of the threat posed by Iran and Hezbollah.

David’s Sling, a joint US-Israeli development that can shoot down missiles that range up to 190 miles, is authorized to receive an additional $120 million under the new defense bill, according to a U.S. Senate summary.

The bill also requests $92 million for the Iron Dome system, designed to intercept small projectiles and artillery, expanding it from 10 to 15 missile batteries.

And the Arrow-2 and Arrow-3 batteries that took down Syrian anti-aircraft missiles headed for Israeli fighter jets in March are also in line to get $120 million under the bill.

“Israel is arguably under the greatest threat of rockets and missiles in the world with the exception of South Korea and Japan,” said Ian Williams, an associate fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank.

Spain Approved Budget for Spike Procurement

Earlier this year, the Spanish Ministry of Defense announced its intention to purchase 260 Spike launchers and 2550 Spike L-R missiles from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.

Now it has been published that the Ministry has committed €1.8 billion ($2.1 billion) of funding for a series of special armament programs, and as part of the massive defense acquisitions, Spain would purchase such missiles and missile launchers with funding now falling under core defense budget.

US Patriot missiles may have failed in Saudi Arabia

“Governments lie about the effectiveness of these systems. Or they’re misinformed, and that should worry the hell out of us.” Jeffrey Lewis, an analyst who led the research team, told the Times.

(Read More...)

Israel: Defense Ministry halts Arrow-3 test

According to Moshe Patel, Israel Missile Defense Organization Director, the simulator missile -which was supposed to simulate a ballistic missile fired at Israel- was fired but it quickly became clear that it was not functioning as expected and therefore the test was stopped before the Arrow system could be tested.

(Read more)