U.S. Congress okays $500m for defense projects with Israel
Another donation to Israel from the US taxpayers - more than double the US$240 million donation to Lebanon.
Haaretz
The United States Congress on Friday approved an additional $500 million for developing joint defense projects with Israel. The funds will be allocated between many different projects, including the development of a short-range missile interception system, navigation systems for missiles and combat aircraft, and aerial drones.The money is not part of the regular military aid to Israel, which currently stands at over $2 billion.
The Senate authorized the funding after it was approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday. The amount approved by Congress is well in excess of the $270 million submitted for approval by the U.S. Government.
Haaretz
The United States Congress on Friday approved an additional $500 million for developing joint defense projects with Israel. The funds will be allocated between many different projects, including the development of a short-range missile interception system, navigation systems for missiles and combat aircraft, and aerial drones.The money is not part of the regular military aid to Israel, which currently stands at over $2 billion.
The Senate authorized the funding after it was approved by the House of Representatives on Thursday. The amount approved by Congress is well in excess of the $270 million submitted for approval by the U.S. Government.
posted by beirutlive at 3:21 PM
3 Comments:
Correct Kevin, except your premise is incorrect. The US is not "investing" in these weapons as is proven by a recent article concerning the anti-rpg system developed in Israel and named "Trophy." The system worked 90% of the time in Israeli tests and 100% of the time in American tests. There is no doubt it works, there is no doubt it would save lives and, so, some were ordered:
Quoting from the article you can read at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/14686871/
"As a result, OFT decided to buy several Trophies — which cost $300,000-$400,000 each — for battlefield trials on Strykers in Iraq next year.
"That plan immediately ran into a roadblock: Strong opposition from the U.S. Army. Why? Pentagon sources tell NBC News that the Army brass considers the Israeli system a threat to an Army program to develop an RPG defense system from scratch.
"The $70 million contract for that program had been awarded to an Army favorite, Raytheon. Raytheon’s contract constitutes a small but important part of the Army’s massive modernization program called the Future Combat System (FCS), which has been under fire in Congress on account of ballooning costs and what critics say are unorthodox procurement practices."
So - we are right where we've always been - talk a lot do a very little. It's not a lot different from the body armor fiasco - the government or the army says "it hasn't been proven" but what they really are doing is protecting the contract. So - we'll wait 10 years for Raytheon to come up with something and pretend to be doing something else in the meantime.
However - it's the same bunch of incompetent idiots who got us into the mess in the first place. Hopefully Bush and his gang of fools will be history soon.
And somebody thinks that this is all about one way favor? Besides the obvious benefit to US, since the development will be financed jointly, and not all from the US budget only - who do you think is going to test the result in the field? And die if it is not a 100% success?
If somebody thinks it's a pleasure to serve as lab rat, that somebody is mistaken a bit.
huh?
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