Israel and the United States agreed to boost cooperation on missile-defense projects.
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates hosted his Israeli counterpart, Ehud Barak, at the Pentagon on Tuesday for talks on a range of bilateral issues, including joint plans for an integrated system to fend off the various missile threats to the Jewish state.
The sides agreed to step up work on David’s Sling, a system designed to shoot down rockets of the kind used by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon. Israel separately is developing another system, Iron Dome, for dealing with shorter-range Palestinian rockets.
Israel and the United States also plan to upgrade Arrow, Israel’s ballistic interception system, so it might be more effective intercepting Iranian long-range Shehab missiles or Syrian Scuds.
Barak has said Israel should ensure it has a full missile defense apparatus in place before making any major territorial concessions to the Palestinians in the West Bank.
