The US Army has asked Congress for some $373 million for the purchase of two Iron Dome batteries from Israel.
According to the Yedioth Ahronoth daily, if the deal goes through, it will be the first time Israel has ever sold an entire weapons system to the US.
The report on the sale, which cites an American website called Inside Defense, says it will include 12 launchers, two radar systems and battlefield management computers, and 240 missiles.
The batteries will be supplied by 2020, and will be deployed with US forces in sensitive parts of the world to help protect them from the threat of rocket attacks.
The army’s request leaves open the possibility that it will spend up to $1.6 billion on further integrating the Iron Dome system into US radar and command-and-control systems by 2024, suggesting the American military’s interest in the system is only beginning.
Then-US president Barack Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu alongside an Iron Dome missile defense battery during Obama’s visit to Israel in March 2013. (Nati Shohat/Flash90)
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