U.S. to continue funding Israel anti-missile system

The United States will continue funding Israel's Arrow anti-ballistic missile system, U.S. defense officials decided during their annual strategic dialogue at the Pentagon this week.

Israeli defense officials have recently been concerned that cuts in the U.S. defense budget, along with Pentagon unwillingness to fund a project that does not employ American workers, could harm the future of the Arrow.

The Arrow III - which is expected to have the capability of intercepting a ballistic missile at an early stage of its flight path, allowing for the possibility of more attempts at interception if the first one fails - is under development, but without U.S. funding, it would have been difficult to continue developing the missile system upgrade.

Top Israeli defense officials were informed last month by their American counterparts that there were no plans underway to cut funding for the Arrow system, but the announcement on Wednesday has confirmed continuation of the project.

The announcement was made just hours Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad declared that Iran has successfully test-fired a new advanced missile with a range of about 1,200 miles, far enough to strike Israel and southeastern Europe as well as U.S. bases in the Gulf.

Israel's successful test last month of the upgraded Arrow II anti-ballistic missile system made defense officials hopeful that the United States would continue funding the system, which is designed to defend against possible ballistic missile attacks by Iran and Syria.

That Arrow missile test intercepted a Blue Sparrow missile simulating the flight path of an Iranian Shahab-3 ballistic missile over the Mediterranean. It was the first test of an upgraded Arrow missile combined with new radar - the X-band radar the United States installed in the Negev nine months ago - and a new command and control system.