Panetta: Israel strike in Iran will engage US

[JStone]

Let the Jews have the fun of wiping Iran off the map

 

[waltky]

Israel buildin' anti-missile shield...

Israel seeks $700M from U.S. for missile defense
April 6,`12 (UPI) -- Israel is seeking $700 million from Washington to fund more batteries of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system and other air-defense weapons.

The Israeli military says the systems are needed to protect the country from massive missile bombardment until 2015. The move comes amid growing concerns in Israel, fueled to a large extent by strident warnings from generals and more recently Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, that the Jewish state is increasingly vulnerable to bombardment by tens of thousands of missiles and rockets held by Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip. All this has emerged as Netanyahu has been forced to reduce Israeli the military budget to boost social spending after months of protests in 2011.

At the same time, the U.S. administration has made major cuts in the Pentagon's budget because of economic woes. U.S. President Barack Obama has pledged that Washington won't jeopardize Israel's defense capabilities but at the same time he's been leaning on Netanyahu to hold off any unilateral Israeli attack on Iran's nuclear program, which Netanyahu claims is an existential threat to the Jewish state. The feeling in Israel, and quite a few people in Washington as well, is that Netanyahu's seeking to squeeze extra funds out of Obama by exploiting U.S. concerns the Americans will be dragged into another Middle East war if Israel does strike.

Israel's Ynet Web site, the online service of the Yediot Ahronot daily, quoted Israeli sources "privy to the deal" as saying the two sides are discussing the proposed aid package. Indeed, Ynet acknowledged that "the U.S. Congress and administration's apparent willingness to allocate the funds may be seen as an attempt to incentivize Israel to delay its decision vis-a-vis a military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities." If approved, the requested U.S. funding would allow Israel to build four additional batteries of the Iron Dome system developed by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and speed up work on another air-defense weapon, David's Sling, also being developed by Rafael.

The United States provided $205 million fiscal 2011 to help fund Iron Dome. In March, a bipartisan group introduced the Iron Dome Support Act in Congress authorizing the administration to provide more funds for the system as required by Israel. Obama has said he'll provide "an appropriate level of funding," and that presumably will cover whatever sum the administration decides on in the coming days. Iron Dome, which got its baptism of fire against Palestinian Qassam and Grad rockets in 2011, is designed to intercept short-range rockets and missiles. It's able to down 76 percent of the projectiles it engages. But there are only four batteries, each costing in excess of $50 million, deployed. Military planners say at least 20 are needed to cover all of Israel against short-range missile fire from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.

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Order given for Gatling guns
April 6, 2012 - General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products said it will produce additional 20mm gun systems for use on U.S. Navy F/A-18E/F Super Hornet aircraft.

The order for the weapons came under a contract modification from the Naval Air Systems Command worth $7.8 million, the company said.

"General Dynamics has successfully produced the weapon system for the F/A-18 for more than 25 years," said Steve Elgin, vice president and general manager of armament systems for General Dynamics Armament and Technical Products. "The M61A2 F/A-18 gun system continues to be relevant, affordable and extremely effective."

The M61A2 gun system is a six-barrel Gatling gun. It has a closed-loop rotary feed and can fire as many as 6,000 rounds a minute. Additional details of the contract modification, as well as a delivery schedule, weren't disclosed but General Dynamics said the weapons would be produced at its facility in Saco, Maine.

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