Aid request would double defenses
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration’s $14 billion aid request for Israel would significantly expand its missile defenses, including new Iron Dome launchers equivalent to more than twice the current deployment, and nearly double the amount of U.S. spending for the systems.
The package includes funds to build up to 100 more Iron Dome launchers and as least 14,000 of its Tamir interceptors, according to U.S. officials, who asked not to be identified as the details aren’t public. Currently, the 10 existing Iron Dome batteries each include three to four launchers, 20 Tamir missiles and a battlefield radar.
At three to four launchers per battery, that “would be conservatively 25 new batteries,” said Wes Rumbaugh, a missile defense analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He cautioned, however, that some of the new equipment could be used to replace existing batteries, rather than add new capabilities. The Defense Department and the Israeli embassy in Washington declined to provide specifics.
Asked for comment, a spokesperson for Israel’s embassy in the U.S. said the government doesn’t comment on matters related to foreign military assistance.
The scale of the spending request on missile defense in the White House’s emergency request underscores the significance of such systems for protecting Israeli population centers from rockets launched from Gaza in the south and Lebanon in the north. That’s been crucial amid a steady barrage of rocket attacks in the days since Hamas terrorists launched an Oct. 7 attack into Israel, killing some 1,400 people and taking some 240 hostages.
The boost in missile defenses adds to Washington’s lethal and non-lethal assistance to Israel that so far includes Boeing Co. smart bombs, hostage location advice from the U.S. Special Operations Command, regional insights from the Defense Intelligence Agency and easier access to the U.S. regional war reserve located in Israel.
The fate of the overall $14 billion aid request for Israel is unclear. Republicans in the House, led by Speaker Mike Johnson, have sought to break out of the funds for Israel from President Joe Biden’s original request, which has support in the Democrat-controlled Senate. That White House proposal also includes funds for Ukraine and Taiwan.