US Cancels Planned Purchase of Israeli Missile Defense System

The US military has reportedly canceled plans to purchase additional Iron Dome missile defense batteries from an Israeli corporation due to an inability to integrate them into an array of American-made systems. According to Israeli media reports, the decision was prompted by Jerusalem’s refusal to provide the Pentagon with Iron Dome’s source code, which details how the system tracks and intercepts incoming short-range projectiles. The US last year allocated over $1 billion to purchase four Iron Dome batteries from Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., and recently took possession of two. However, the military will apparently forego acquiring the others. In the past decade, Congress appropriated more than $1.5 billion to produce Iron Dome batteries with a view to enhancing joint military cooperation while significantly improving Israel’s defense capabilities. That sum is in addition to the $3.8 billion in annual military aid that Washington provides to the Jewish state.