U.S. to Purchase ‘Iron Dome’ Technology from Israel After Financing Its Development

After giving Israel billions of dollars to develop its ‘Iron Dome’ anti-missile technology, the U.S. military has agreed to purchase it back from Israel:

In a statement on Wednesday, the US military said it will “assess a variety of options for its long-term [indirect fire protection capacity] solution”.

“The Iron Dome will be assessed and experimented as a system that is currently available to protect deployed US military service members against a wide variety of indirect fire threats and aerial threats,” US Army Colonel Patrick Seiber said, as reported by CNN.

The military did not say how many Iron Dome systems it intends to buy, nor did it say where they would be deployed.

“No decisions have been made regarding the fielding or experimentation of Iron Dome in specific theaters,” Seiber said in the statement.

Developed by Israeli defence firms Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries, the Iron Dome is a missile defence system that has the capacity to fire a missile at an incoming projectile and destroy it in mid-air.

The Israeli army has touted the system, first deployed in 2011, as a way to protect against incoming rockets fired from the Gaza Strip.

On Wednesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed the US army’s plans to purchase the Iron Dome system, calling it a “great achievement for Israel”, Israeli daily Haaretz reported.

Netanyahu also said the purchase reflects “further proof of our solid bond with the US, as well of Israel’s rising status in the world”.

“Israel has an Iron Dome and an iron fist. Our systems can face any threat,” he said.

The Iron Dome has received hundreds of millions of dollars in funding from Washington.

In August 2014, former US president Barack Obama approved $225m in additional funding for the system, after Israel appealed to Congress for backing to replenish its stock of interceptor missiles…

…The deal also provided “for significant co-production opportunities for US industry”, the Times of Israel reported in March 2014.

Indeed, the Iron Dome also includes components made by US defence contractor Raytheon.

Additionally, Raytheon says on its website that it is “working toward production of a US version of Iron Dome called the ‘SkyHunter missile’ that could someday defend forward-deployed American forces”.

The Israelis develop nothing on their own, and this is just another example of that.  For those old enough to remember, the U.S. military contractor Raytheon developed the “Patriot Missile” system over 30 years ago, and that is the basis for the Israeli ‘Iron Dome’ technology.  It’s an open secret in the Pentagon that Israel has access to all new and developing weapons systems.  Israel gets whatever it wants, and the U.S. taxpayer pays for it.

So when the U.S. “buys” military technology from Israel, this is just a roundabout ploy to funnel money into Israel without getting anything in return.  Sure, America needs Israel’s help to defend itself.  After all, even Israel can build a border wall, and if they can do that, they must be brilliant inventors.  One would think there would be a law against the U.S. purchasing back its own technology from foreign governments, but such a law would clearly be “antisemitic”.