Defense News:
The House Armed Services Committee would boost funding to help procure and produce various Israeli missile defense programs by nearly $200 million above the level requested in the president’s defense budget, according to the chairman’s mark of the fiscal 2017 defense policy bill.
Several influential lawmakers recently signaled their desire to add funding for such US-Israeli partnership efforts like the Iron Dome air defense system; David’s Sling, a medium- and long-range air defense system; and the Arrow family of anti-ballistic missiles.
Adm. James Syring, Missile Defense Agency director, said during a recent Senate Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee hearing that the request from Capitol Hill for funding on top of the president’s request of just under $150 million could total almost $600 million.
The HASC’s mark would bump the funding for Tamir interceptors for Iron Dome from $42 million requested in the president’s budget to $62 million. The committee would also plus up funding for procurement and co-production of David’s Sling from $37.21 million to $150 million and the Arrow 3 Upper Tier Missile Defense System from $55.8 million to $120 million.
It remains to be seen what kind of additional funding House appropriators and Senate defense committees would include in their markups.
Israel traditionally receives significant congressional plus-ups from the administration’s budget request for cooperative missile defense programs. Over the past 10 years, Congress has appropriated $1.9 billion more than was originally requested by successive administrations.
Last year, Congress augmented the administration’s request for Arrow and David’s Sling programs by more than 100 percent.
The amount anticipated this year is more than what was enacted for Israeli missile defense funding in 2016. The president requested roughly $150 million and Congress enacted $488 million, according to Syring. Israeli missile defense program funding got a boost from Congress in 2015 as well.
