Israel slashes military budget
Special to World Tribune.com
MIDDLE EAST NEWSLINE
Monday, October 2, 2000
TEL AVIV — Prime Minister Ehud Barak has rejected military plans to
cut the defense research and development budget in response to a major cut in its budget.
Barak has recommended to the military that it seek ways to cut personnel
rather than R&D programs. The General Staff meets this week to discuss ways
to implement government cuts in the defense budget.
The government has approved a 700 million shekel cut in the request by
the military for fiscal 2001. Military commanders said the cut will affect
procurement and R&D programs in the years to come.
The Israeli Haaretz daily said that Barak's opposition to cuts in the
R&D budget stems from recent successes in projects such as the Arrow
anti-missile system. Barak acknowledged that he was wrong to have opposed
the Arrow when he was chief of staff nearly a decade ago. He said he thought
the United States could develop such technology much faster than Israel.
In a related development, the state-owned Israel Military Industries has
been awarded a $6.3 million Pentagon contract for the upgrade of its
Improved Tactical Air Launched Decoy navigation system. The upgrade will
include integration of a Global Positioning System receiver and the
retrofitting of production baseline decoy air vehicles.
Monday, October 2, 2000
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