Letter to John McCain, Mac Thornberry, Jack Reed and Adam Smith; Respectively, Chairmen and Ranking Members of the Senate Committee on Armed Services - Kirk-Gillibrand Urge Full Funding for U.S.-Israel Missile Defense Cooperation

Letter

Dear Chairman McCain, Ranking Member Reed, Chairman Thornberry, and Ranking Member Smith:

As you prepare the Conference Report for the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2017 (NDAA), we write in strong support of fully funding U.S.-Israel cooperative missile defense programs. These joint U.S.-Israel programs continue to yield critical defense capabilities that protect Israel from missile and rocket threats from as near as the Gaza Strip and Lebanon to as far as Iran. As you know, investments over the years in U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs have saved the lives of countless civilians from indiscriminate rocket and missile attacks.

In recent years, Congress has authorized and appropriated funding for these programs that fully met our ally's needs, even when those needs exceeded the President's Budget request. We believe that fully funding U.S.-Israeli missile defense programs at $601 million, as funded by the House-passed NDAA, is a level that will allow Israel to fully meet its national security requirements. We urge you to work in a bicameral, bipartisan manner to find a satisfactory solution to fully fund these U.S.-Israel programs.

The three cooperative missile defense programs and the Iron Dome system meet core Israeli national security requirements. Iron Dome is designed to intercept very short-range rocket threats between two and forty-five miles, primarily fired at Israel from the Gaza Strip, Syria, Lebanon, or the Sinai Peninsula. Iron Dome's selective targeting system and radar are designed to fire its Tamir interceptors only at incoming projectiles that pose threats to population centers. The Arrow Weapon System empowers Israel to defend against imminent and emerging missile threats, and also yields data and technology that advances U.S. ballistic missile defense programs. David's Sling, designed to complement Iron Dome and the Arrow Weapon System, provides enhanced defense against threats from large caliber artillery rockets, tactical ballistic missiles, and cruise missiles.

Amid growing rocket and missile threats in the Middle East, it is prudent for the United States and Israel to advance and accelerate bilateral cooperation on missile defense technologies. We therefore urge you to fully fund U.S.-Israeli joint missile defense programs so that Israel can continue to develop and improve the three cooperative missile defense programs, as well as to purchase sufficient Iron Dome systems, including co-production of these systems in the United States, for protecting Israel's population against growing missile and rocket threats in the region.