World Tribune.com
Legacy

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


Contact World Tribune.com at world@worldtribune.com

Return toWorld Tribune.com front page
Your window on the world