Ministry of Defense Homa Administration director Arie Herzog is in Washington for talks US participation in the Arrow anti-ballistic missile program, with a focus on the Arrow 3, in the US 2011 fiscal year, which begins on October 1, 2010. Minister of Defense Ehud Barak will also raise the issue in talks in Washington tomorrow.
Yesterday, Herzog met Representative Steven Rothman (Democratic, New Jersey) to discuss joint US-Israel anti-missile defense programs. Rothman is a member of the House Subcommittee on Defense, State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs, which has an important input in setting the amount of US participation in the Arrow and other joint US-Israel defense programs.
At this and other meetings on Capitol Hill, Herzog was accompanied by Lt.-Col. Merav Davidovich, the Arrow program liaison officer at the Israeli Embassy in Washington, and Embassy Congressional advisor Aviv Ezra.
Herzog arrives in Washington every February in what diplomats call a ritual. February is the month when the White House submits its budget proposal to Congress for the upcoming fiscal year, and the House and Senate committees begin their review of the document and decide which programs to cut or increase funding for. This is also the time when lobbyists seek out legislators to ensure that the their programs avoid the axe.
Herzog is seeking to ensure that Congress will consider the White House's budget proposal for the Arrow as merely a basis, and that it will boost spending on the program (plus-up in the Congressional jargon), as has happened in many preceding years.
In January, Congress greatly increased the budget for the Arrow program beyond what the administration sought in the Defense Appropriations Bill for the 2010 fiscal year; the White House asked for $73.5 million for the program, but Congress added $48.5 million for a total of $122 million. The increase was achieved through the efforts of lobbyists and other interested parties, including Herzog and Barak, who met a Congressional delegation last April and asked them to increasing US participation for development of the Arrow 3.
The Arrow 3 program received $50 million in the 2010 Defense Appropriations Bill, $12.5 million more than the administration asked for. The extra funding came despite a report by the Missile Defense Agency that the technology and timetable for the Arrow 3, which has greater range and altitude than the current versions of the missile, are "high risk", even as it demonstrated better performance at lower cost compared with US anti-missile systems.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on February 25, 2010
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