Iron Dome
Photo: Meir Ohayon
US to invest additional $400 million in Iron Dome
Washington intends to allocate $220 million in 2014, $176 million in 2015 to anti-missile system; Hagel to visit Israel next week
The United States
plans to finance the Israel's Iron Dome anti-missile by the amount of $220 million for the fiscal year 2014, despite the US's budget cuts.
According Missile Defense Agency (MDA), the Pentagon plans to spend $220.3 million on the Iron Dome.
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The Pentagon, which had already spent $204 million in 2011 and $70 million in 2012, also foresees a budget of 176 million for the Iron Dome system in 2015.
US Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel promised on March 5 to former Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak that Washington would continue to fund Israeli missile defense systems, including Iron Dome, despite the United States' budget constraints.
Hagel said Tuesday he would be traveling to Israel in a few days, his first trip to the Mideast ally since he took over at the Pentagon.
US military aid to Israel amounts to three billion dollars a year, to ensure Israel a "qualitative military edge" over other countries in the region, as US law provides.
Each Iron Dome battery has radar detection and tracking, control software and three launchers, each equipped with 20 interceptor missiles.
The system proved particularly effective during Operation Pillar of Defense , when some 1,500 rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip, thwarted at a success rate of 84%, according to the New York Times.
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