Israels seeks to fill its quiver of Arrows

Israel has test-fired its new Arrow-3 anti-ballistic missile system, the country's main defense against Iran's Shehab-3 missiles, as it drives to boost its arsenal of about 120 of the weapons amid rising tension in the Persian Gulf.

The Defense Ministry is meanwhile grappling with the problem of how to fund the development of Arrow-3 and the system's new Magnificent Pine radar. Ministry sources say $3.9 billion is needed to produce more batteries of the long-range, high-altitude Arrow built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries.

But large sums are also needed to develop and produce other anti-missile systems that will eventually form a multilayer defense shield. These are designed to counter everything from intermediate-range ballistic missiles to short-range unguided rockets like those used by Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian militants in Gaza.

Israelis are looking to the United States to pitch in and provide the money, on top of the $3 billion a year the Jewish state receives in U.S. military aid. Despite a sharp U.S. economic downturn, Congress has approved increasing missile defense funds for Israel to $235.7 million for 2012, up from $217.7 million in 2011.

This will cover Arrow-2, the variant in service with the Israeli air force, development of Arrow-3 and final development for David's Sling.

Whether that will mean further U.S. funding to help Israel over its defense budget problems isn't clear.

But U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman, D-N.J., a member of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee that approved the funds, noted, "It's a mark of the importance of these jointly developed missile defense programs Â… that they were robustly funded by our subcommittee."

The Arrow program is one of the centerpieces of the U.S.-Israeli strategic alliance and one of the most advanced systems if its kind.