U.S.has approved defense spending of $600 million with Israel for missile defense cooperation 12305161

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Defence & Security News - Israel
 
U.S. has approved defense spending of $600 million with Israel for missile defense cooperation.
United States has approved a defense spending of $600 million with Israel for missile defense cooperation. The spending will help Israel defend its citizens against rocket and missile threats, and contribute to America’s missile defense.
     
United States has approved a defense spending of $600 million with Israel for missile defense cooperation. The spending will help Israel defend its citizens against rocket and missile threats, and contribute to America’s missile defense. Israel's Arrow-2 interceptor, fired during a 2004 test. Photo: Wikimedia
     
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) on Thursday, May 19, 2016, welcomed the missile defense component of the National Defense Authorization Act, the bill that outlines defense spending policies.

Of the $600 million, $269 million will go to overall research and development, $62 million will go to funding the short-range Iron Dome anti-missile program, and $270 million will go to funding the longer-range Arrow and David’s Sling anti-missile programs.

The Obama administration and the government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are currently negotiating the extension to the current arrangement, which expires in 2018 and which allocates to Israel about $3 billion a year in defense assistance. Obama administration officials say the package will be increased.

The Arrow is a family of anti-ballistic missiles designed to fulfill an Israeli requirement for a theater missile defense system that would be more effective against ballistic missiles than the MIM-104 Patriot surface-to-air missile.

David's Sling is an Israel Defense Forces military system being jointly developed by the Israeli defense contractor Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and the American defense contractor Raytheon, designed to intercept tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets and cruise missiles, fired at ranges from 40 km (24.85 miles) to 300 km (186.41 miles).