Budget cuts make David’s Sling missile shield deployment in 2015 unlikely

Jerusalem temporarily freezes funding to Israel’s missile defense system’s manufacturer Rafael as part of defense dept’s austerity measures.

By Reuters

 

Israel’s US-backed David’s Sling missile shield is unlikely to be deployed by next year as originally scheduled, an Israeli defense official said on Wednesday, citing budget shortfalls.

David’s Sling, which is designed to shoot down various aerial threats using interceptor missiles manufactured by US firm Raytheon Co., is billed by Israel as a future bulwark against foes like Lebanon’s Hezbollah and Syria and Iran.

But with the Finance Ministry trying to reduce the defense budget, the government said it had frozen funding for David’s Sling manufacturer, Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd.

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As a result, a senior defense official told reporters, “David’s Sling, which was supposed to be operational in 2015, will probably not be operational.”

While US congressional funding for Israeli missile defense was still flowing and allowing work on the system’s development, “we don’t have the money here to pay for infrastructure”, the official added, referring to deployable David’s Sling batteries.

Israel is building a multi-tier missile shield. The lowest tier, short-range rocket interceptor Iron Dome, and the top tier, ballistic missile interceptor Arrow, are both already in service. David’s Sling is envisaged as bridging between the two.

Major-General Amir Eshel, chief of Israel’s air force, sought to play down the hold-ups in David’s Sling deployment.

“It is an excellent system which will be operational,” he told Reuters on the sidelines of a security conference. Asked when that might be, Eshel said: “I don’t remember.”

Though both Israeli and US officers have praised David’s Sling’s performance in field tests, the system lost out on a Polish missile-defense tender. Washington, backing two competing US systems, exercised an effective veto on its ally’s bid due the involvement of US technologies in David’s Sling.

 

View original Ynet publication at: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4522339,00.html