Michael Eisenstadt David Pollock How the United States Benefits ...

Israel’s rocket and missile defenses enable Israel to
act with restraint in the face of rocket and missile
attacks, making escalation and war less likely. Thus,
the successful intercept of rockets fired from Gaza
by the Israeli Iron Dome system in the spring and
summer of 2011, and again in the spring of 2012, has
averted (at least thus far) a conflict in Gaza that could
have jeopardized U.S. ties with Egypt and sparked a
regional crisis at a particularly sensitive time. 32
The United States and its allies also stand to
benefit from Israel’s rocket-defense R&D efforts,
which have produced two systems: Iron Dome
(operational) and David’s Sling (under development),
both of which offer capabilities that no other
country in the world currently possesses. The Israeli
firm Rafael developed the Iron Dome system on
its own—the world’s first combat-proven counterrocket
and mortar system—and has partnered with
Raytheon to produce it for U.S. allies (South Korea
has reportedly expressed interest) and perhaps for
the U.S. military. These kinds of partnerships provide
jobs and help preserve the U.S. defense-industrial
base at a time of reduced defense spending,
and provide U.S. and allied forces with a rocketdefense
capability that they currently lack. 33 Likewise,
David’s Sling is being jointly developed by
Raytheon and Rafael to meet U.S. and Israeli operational
requirements, and might be procured by
the U.S. military to enhance its ability to deal with
rockets, short-range missiles, and eventually cruise
missiles and other air-breathing threats in the Persian
Gulf and elsewhere. Several other U.S. allies,
including India, Singapore, and South Korea, have
likewise reportedly shown interest in the system. 34
Looking to the future, U.S.-Israel rocket- and
missile-defense cooperation is likely to deepen even
further. The United States continues to support and
remains engaged in the development of the Arrow
III system, and both Israeli and U.S. companies are
working on solid-state lasers as the “next big thing”
in missile defense, creating likely future opportunities
for further collaboration. 35 Moreover, the
United States and Israel are expected to hold the
rescheduled Austere Challenge 12 missile-defense
How the United States Benefits from Its Alliance with Israel
exercise in October 2012, which will involve Israeli
Iron Dome and Arrow missiles, and U.S. Theater
High-Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) and Standard
SM-3 missiles—and more than four thousand
troops from both countries. 36 And for the immediate
future, only Israeli rocket-defense systems (Iron
Dome and, in another year, David’s Sling) provide
a solution to the short- and medium-range rocket
threat in the region, which affects U.S. personnel in
Iraq and Afghanistan, and U.S. allies in the Persian
Gulf and elsewhere.
Military Cooperation
Israel has made a number of important contributions
to the American way of war, despite the fact
that the U.S. military can draw on incomparable
human and material resources, has an unparalleled
record since World War II of technological, organizational,
and doctrinal innovation, and possesses
unrivaled power-projection capabilities. Because
of the IDF’s small size, egalitarian culture, relative
lack of bureaucracy, and rich operational experience,
it has been a leading innovator in a number
of critical areas. 37 Accordingly, the U.S. military
has often looked to its Israeli counterparts for lessons
learned, innovative technologies and tactics,
and novel warfighting concepts—just as the IDF
has frequently looked to the U.S. military as a
model and source of inspiration due to the latter’s
achievements in the 1991 Gulf War, Kosovo (1999),
Afghanistan (2001), and Iraq (2003). 38
Although the U.S. military has accumulated
unmatched experience of its own in Iraq and
Afghanistan during the past decade, it continues
to consult with its Israeli peers (as well as its British,
Australian, and other first-tier allies), while
sharing its own insights with them. And although
both sides have occasionally withheld their most
sensitive tactics, techniques, and procedures or
“game changing” technologies (with Israel, for its
part, fearing that such material would eventually
make its way to Arab states allied with the United
States), the collaboration has been intimate, far
reaching, and mutually beneficial.
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