Natasha Mozgovaya / Haaretz & Turkish Weekly – 2010-06-12 23:15:17
http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/u-s-congress-gives-obama-okay-to-fund-israel-rocket-defense-1.291339
US Congress Gives Obama Okay to Fund Israel Rocket Defense
Natasha Mozgovaya / Haaretz
WASHINGTON (June 12, 2010) — The US House of Representatives on Thursday voted in favor of President Barack Obama’s plans to help Israel fund the deployment of the Iron Dome anti-missile defense system.
Lawmakers, by a 410-4 margin, backed Obama’s plan to give Israel 205 million dollars for its production of a short-range rocket defense system.
The Iron Dome missile defense system aced a test run in January, and event that convinced senior defense officials that the defense system was on its way to becoming operational and that it will be able to effectively protect against short-range missiles, such as Katyushas and Qassams, which often hit Israeli towns.
The project’s first phase, which included development, test runs and the manufacture of two batteries, required a budget of NIS 800 million. The Israel Air Force has also trained a special new unit to operate the defense system.
However, the plan was not allotted an adequate budget. The Israel Defense Forces ducked away from funding the project with its budget, explaining that offensive readiness was a higher priority, and the Defense Ministry has been looking for other budgetary avenues.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Howard Berman said following the vore that “with nearly every square inch of Israel at risk from rocket and missile attacks, we must ensure that our most important ally in the region has the tools to defend itself.”
“The looming threat of a nuclear-armed Iran, and the persistent threat posed by Iran’s allies Hamas and Hezbollah, only serve to reinforce our longstanding commitment to Israel’s security,” Berman added.
Israel completed tests in January on its Iron Dome system, designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells fired at Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah.
Florida congressman Ted Deutch commended the “Obama Administration for
supporting the critical Iron Dome system, which could help save the lives of innocent Israelis who every day live in fear of rocket attacks on their homes, schools, and marketplaces.”
“Partnering with Israel on short-range missile defense technology demonstrates America’s unyielding commitment to Israel’s security,” Deutch added, saying that “Israel must be able to keep its citizens safe, and we must demand Palestinians end incitement and Hamas reject the use of terror.”
The Obama Administration must always work to address the threats posed to Israel not only by short-range missiles, but by the looming possibility of a nuclear-armed Iran.â€
The pro-Israel lobby AIPAC released a statement following the Congress vote, saying that the decision, that “will reduce the threat from Hamas and Hezbollah rocket attacks, is a tribute to America’s commitment to Israel’s defense and underscores our fundamental security cooperation with Israel, an island of democracy surrounded by a sea of hostile terrorist and totalitarian threats.”
“America stands shoulder-to-shoulder with the people of Israel in their quest for peace and the right to live lives free of terrorism,” the statement read.
‘Anti-missile System Not Thought-out’
Turkish Weekly
(March 3, 2009) — State Comptroller Micha Lindenstrauss, in a report released on Monday, blasted the Defense Ministry’s decision-making on the development of systems that could have prevented many of the rocket strikes on the South.
Annual report shows lack of home front preparedness for chemical attack
Lindenstrauss presented the report, which also probed the state’s readiness on the home front and the work of security forces in the Jerusalem area, to acing Knesset Speaker Michael Eitan.
The state comptroller blasted the fact that two separate rocket-defense systems were currently being developed, at great expense to the IDF’s budget.
“Significant errors that were found in the decision-making process regarding developing active defense systems against surface-to-surface missiles that could lead to development of and mobilization with systems that do not satisfy all of the operational necessities,” he said.
This process could lead to “needless financial expenditures and a waste of time.”
Lindenstrauss recommended that the nation’s civilian leadership review both of the projects — the Iron Dome and the Magic Wand systems — and review their goals and benefits in comparison to their cost.
Most of the criticism is directed not at the civilian echelon of the Defense Ministry, but rather against the IDF planners who, the State Comptroller’s Office said, failed to take into consideration all of the operational possibilities when drawing up the initial plans together with the state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd. The contract between the Defense Ministry and Rafael did not take into consideration all of the ranges of missiles that the system might have to confront, Lindenstrauss said.
Furthermore, Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, in his previous role as Defense Ministry director-general, approved funding for the Magic Wand system, even though he did not have the authority to do so.
The NIS 860 million Iron Dome system is supposed to fire a rocket that will knock rockets fired from Gaza toward Israel out of the sky, and will “know” how to identify and target rockets that are going to hit populated areas, while leaving others to strike open areas.
Lindenstrauss’s report did not criticize or analyze the operational utility of the Iron Dome system. In January, defense officials said it had recently been updated and was capable of hitting incoming missiles that were fired at a range of as little as 4 km. and as much as 70 km. from their target, which would account for the overwhelming majority of rockets fired from Gaza at present.
Despite the criticisms, defense sources have offered a robust defense of the Iron Dome, saying that the shortcomings listed in the report stemmed from the “bold ambition” of developers.
In a statement released on Monday, the Defense Ministry said it “welcomed the state comptroller’s report and views it as a badge of honor.”
“An in-depth look at the report’s summary finds that these shortcomings stem from the bold ambition of those involved to provide operational solutions to those in the field as soon as possible, even if this comes at the price of not observing all of the procedures relating to complex analyses, cost-benefit checks… etc,” the ministry said.
Development of the rocket shield had reached its “final stage,” and was running “ahead of schedule,” said Brig-Gen. Danny Gold, head of research and development for the ministry’s Administration for the Development of Weapons and the Technological Industry.
In January, officials said that unlike its American competition — Skyguard — Iron Dome “is proceeding at a good pace,” with an important intercept test scheduled for this spring, and its developers working “round the clock” with the goal of a first deployment early next year.
“This system can be developed in a fifth of the time it would take to develop other systems, and at a 10th of the cost,” Gold said. “It is the cheapest system in the world.”
Gold added that the “best of Israel’s minds” were working “day and night” at the Rafael. Iron Dome is designed to intercept the type of short-range rockets that have terrorized southern Israel for years.
Gold hinted that press reports suggesting that Iron Dome would become operational in 2010 were accurate.
Likud MK Yuval Steinitz, one of the supporters of the Iron Dome system, said he had not yet read the report, but that he had recommended that Israel should focus on the part of the project that aimed to intercept rockets fired from a range of 30-250 km.
“In the long-run there is no complete protection for the residents of Sderot and the Gaza-periphery communities,” Steinitz said, “and in terms of cost and efficiency I don’t have many expectations of the system that aims to intercept rockets fired to short range.”
Magic Wand, a second rocket shield aimed at intercepting projectiles with a longer range, would compliment Iron Dome, Gold added. Magic Wand is expected to be ready for use a year or two after Iron Dome goes on line.Magic Wand is being developed jointly by Rafael and US defense corporation Raytheon, and is designed to fire Stunner missiles at incoming rockets.
Alternative rocket shield initiatives, such as the laser-based Nautilus Defense System, now updated and known as Skyguard, have reached a dead end after Defense Ministry director-general Pinchas Buchris paid a visit a year ago to White Sands, New Mexico, to see the system deployed. Defense officials told The Jerusalem Post at the time that Buchris and his delegation returned convinced that the choice of Iron Dome was correct and that the Northrop Grumman system was not feasible.
Shelly Paz contributed to this report.
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