Israel gives 30-billion-shekel boost to anti-missile project

Israel plans to boost its missile defense capabilities with an injection of NIS 30 billion. 

By: World Israel News Staff

Israel’s security cabinet is set to approve in its upcoming meeting on Sunday a new NIS 30 billion ($8.225 billion) budget to equip the IDF with anti-missile defense systems in order to supplement the existing ones and significantly boost its defense capabilities.

The decade-long plan, which is expected to start in 2019 and end in late 2028, is the most expensive strategy that the IDF has ever undertaken.

According to IDF assessments, the next war will include massive barrages of advanced missiles on Israeli civilian targets. To thwart the possibility of mass casualties, the defense establishment plans to increase Israel’s missile defense apparatus immensely.

“The plan will increase and expand defensive measures for Israeli citizens and allow the IDF to have the strategic depth it needs to bring to a clear military victory quickly,” Ynet quoted a senior government official is quoted as saying.

The massive defense project will be funded partially by the existing defense budget with money saved by implementing significant efficiency processes inside the IDF. Additional funding from the state budget will include tax surplus and cuts to government funding, but not from education, health or welfare budgets.

Israel has already deployed a successful and broad anti-missile defense system, which includes the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 for long-range outer-atmospheric ballistic missiles, the highly successful Iron Dome system for short-range rockets and mortars, and David’s Sling, designed to contend with mid-range missiles.

They provide an almost hermetic defense against a wide array of ballistic projectiles, with eyes on the Iranian ballistic threat and those posed by the Hezbollah terror organization in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza.