US boosts Israeli missile funding

US House appropriators have pushed funding for Israeli missile defense programs to its highest level ever, with $422.7 million now slated for 2011. Last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense added $95.7 million. to the original White House funding request for the long-range Arrow programs and medium-range David's Sling, according to sources close to the panel. The lion's share–$108.8 million–will go to the Arrow 3 system, which the US signed off on after some initial hesitation. In addition, the monies include $205 million pledged this spring by President Obama to the short-range Iron Dome project. The package is more than twice as much as last year's total, and adds up to nearly $1 billion in aid to joint US-Israel missile defense programs in the past four years. The funding will need to be voted on by the full House when it reconvenes in the fall, as well as approved by the Senate in its own defense appropriations bill.