Israel:  Bush Proposes $66 Million to Fund Israeli Arrow Program

By Kerry Boyd
Global Security Newswire

U.S. President George W. Bush’s recent fiscal 2003 budget request includes $66 million for the U.S.-funded Israeli Arrow missile defense program (see GSN, Feb. 1).

According to U.S. Defense Department Comptroller Dov Zakheim, the $66 million includes:

*         $10 million for a deployability program,

*         $50 million for an improvements program,

*         $3 million for an Israeli test bed,

*         $2 million for Israeli system architecture and

*         $1 million for program support (see GSN, Dec. 21, 2001).

The request is “pretty comprehensive,” Zakheim told the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee yesterday.  It “reflects very intense discussions with the Israeli Ministry of Defense as to — and, of course, our own people — as to what was needed to keep this program ongoing,” he said.

The budget request also includes $3.5 million for the Tactical High Energy Laser program, which intercepted a target in 2000, Zakheim said.  “The Israelis have moved with us to a more mobile variant, which would, I think, better meet both our needs,” he said.

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U.S. Plans:  Official Calls for Investigation Into Raytheon Kill-Vehicle Contract

A California congressman has called for an investigation into how the defense contractor Raytheon won the contract to build the kill vehicle for a U.S. missile defense system, the New York Times reported Saturday (see GSN, Jan. 28).

Representative Howard Berman (D-Calif.) asked the General Accounting Office, the investigative arm of Congress, to examine the contest between Raytheon and defense contractor Boeing for the contract.

In a letter to the GAO, Berman said Raytheon won the contract in 1998 after an internal Raytheon design document was found in Boeing’s possession.  Berman said he had been told Boeing found the Raytheon document “under a chair in a conference room,” where it had been accidentally left behind.  Industrial espionage is prohibited by Defense Department regulations, and Boeing ultimately conceded the contract fearing that Raytheon would sue, Berman said.

“It is unimaginable that a decision of this magnitude with such enormous implications for our national security could have been made to protect the legal and financial interests of one contractor,” Berman wrote to GAO head David Walker.

Boeing withdrew from the contest for other reasons, said Lt. Col. Richard Lehner, spokesman for the Missile Defense Agency.  Lehner said Boeing felt it had an institutional conflict since another Boeing team was in charge of developing the entire missile shield and managing the kill-vehicle competition (see GSN, Jan. 11).

Raytheon spokeswoman Colleen Niccum said Raytheon won the kill-vehicle contest because of its superior design (see GSN, Jan. 18).

The alleged spying incident and Raytheon’s subsequent award of the contract, “could end up costing the American taxpayers hundreds of million of dollars, given the performance problems associated with the Raytheon kill vehicle,” Berman said in his letter to the GAO.  The Raytheon design has hit its target three times and missed twice in flight tests, according to the Times.

The incident would be even more disturbing if Defense Department officials were found to be “aware of these circumstances and took no action,” Berman wrote (William Broad, New York Times, Feb. 9).

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Russian Plans:  Officials to Upgrade Moscow Missile Shield

ITAR-Tass reported Friday that Moscow’s missile defense system is likely to be enhanced within the next few years, according to the Associated Press (see GSN, Jan. 30).

Plans have been made to upgrade the system’s power and mechanical equipment, a computer complex, transmitting and receiving devices and other components, a Russian industrial-military complex official said (see GSN, Dec. 18, 2001).  It should take three to four years to complete the planned upgrades, the official said.

The former Soviet Union first deployed an anti-ballistic missile shield around Moscow in 1974 and Russia completed the latest upgrade in 1994, according to the Associated Press.  That upgrade, the A-135 system, includes long- and medium-range missile interceptors (Vladimir Isachenkov, Associated Press/Moscow Times, Feb. 11).

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