Aside from boasting an 80% effective rate to destroy incoming rockets. The US contributed some $200 million to the development of the system; and projected in next year's defense bill is an increase to $900 million. One might think that would entitle the US to some degree of ownership of the particulars; at least to be able to support our own troops and bases in hostile areas.... but no.
Technologically, the system is the work of Israeli mathematicians and engineering... it uses a predictive model to determine which rockets can be ignored (because they are going to miss) and which to destroy.
Our politicians in the House Armed Services Committee have asked Missile Defense Agency to pursue “any opportunity to enter into co-production of the Iron Dome system with Israel, in light of the significant U.S. investment in this system.”
Here's the leverage they hope to use:
According to committee spokesman Claude Chafin, the problem is that the U.S. doesn’t have the necessary transparency into the details of Iron Dome that it has with other U.S.-Israeli anti-missile partnerships, like Arrow and David’s Sling — an opacity that makes it hard to argue the U.S. should get its own Iron Domes for ships and bases. So the committee wants to condition the next round of $680 million in Iron Dome funding on that knowledge.
Somehow, I wonder just how effective that will be when our Department of Defense is well manned by Israeli contractor interests... never mind the political clout Israel's government wields within our own political system.
This will be an interesting negotiation, I think... one we will probably hear almost nothing about, unless i am completely mistaken.
defensesystems.com
(visit the link for the full news article)
edit on 23-8-2012 by Maxmars because: (no reason given)
. Remeber Phalcon
deal with China and how it ended?
