Tel Aviv: The US special grant of $15 billion to enhance the Israeli defence readiness following the Iranian attack will be used not only to replenish dwindled stocks of ammunitions, but to develop new versions of operational ones.
On Wednesday, US President Biden signed an aid bill that will provide Israel with approximately US $ 15 billion in military funding.
The special grant will allow Israel to fill its stockpiles of air defence interceptors especially the Iron Dome and David’s Sling.
The grant will also enable Israel to accelerate the Iron Beam program aimed at developing a laser air defence system that will work in conjunction with the existing kinetic systems.
Israeli defence sources say that besides, some of the extra funds will be channeled to the fast development of mainly long range attack systems. These will allow Israel to attack targets from a very long range.
Israel has developed some of this type of systems, and one, a highly classified one, was used to destroy the S-300 Russian made air defence system that was deployed near one of Iran’s nuclear sites.
A special committee in the Israeli ministry of defence will allocate the extra funds according to operational priorities.
-The writer is an Israel-based freelance journalist. The views expressed are of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Raksha Anirveda
