Boeing has joined forces with an Israeli company to
pursue the contract to develop a short-range ballistic
missile defense system for Israel.
The U.S. aerospace giant announced that it and Israel
Aircraft Industries (IAI) would jointly pursue the Short
Range Ballistic Missile Defense (SRBMD) project,
which Israel wants as a defence against both missiles
and long-range artillery rockets.
Next month, the Israeli military will select an Israeli-U.S. industry team for the risk reduction phase of the
SRBMD program. The full-scale development and
production phases will be a cooperative effort between
the Israeli Missile Defence Organization and the U.S.
Missile Defence Agency.
Boeing and IAI worked together previously on missile
defence with the Arrow II, Israel's operational defense
system.
"This is an opportunity to build on the exceptional
partnership that Boeing and IAI have established
through the co-production of the successful Arrow II
interceptor," said Debra Rub-Zink, vice president for
Boeing Integrated Missile Defence. "It is our privilege
to join forces once again with IAI to provide leading
edge technology to rapidly and effectively address
threats as they evolve."
Boeing did not disclose any details of the proposed
technology or the financial commitments.
Missile defence is a high priority for Israel, which has
weathered not only the Scud launches of the Gulf
War, but scores of attacks by smaller rocket fired by
Palestinian fighters.
The Arrow II is designed to go after longer-range
rockets; however, Israel has aggressively pursued
technology to defeat the small shorter-range weapons
that pack less punch but require far less time between
launch and impact.