Head of Israeli Missile Defense Organization discusses Israel-US military cooperation

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – Cooperation between Israel and America saw an important milestone in September, as the Americans took possession of their first Israeli-produced, US-funded, Iron Dome missile defense battery, Defense News reports. In a full published interview with Defense News last month, the head of Israel’s Missile Defense Organization (MDO), Moshe Patel, discussed the current and future cooperation between his organization and the US Missile Defense Agency.

In regard to the Iron Dome that Israel will be delivering to the US Army, Patel said it is “very similar” to that which the Israeli army uses. “All of our systems are fully interoperable, which means we can adapt Iron Dome the U.S. Army will decide. For example, they’re going to use the IBCS [Integrated Battle Command System], so they’re going to have the ability to connect those Iron Dome launchers and the interceptors to the IBCS,” Patel explained in the Defense News interview.

Turning to the idea of using laser or directed energy as a cheap missile defense option, Patel confirmed there is an ongoing discussion between Israel and the Pentagon about this. “Directed energy is something that we — I can tell you, it’s playing a major role for the future in Israel, I know [for] the U.S. also. And we are looking at ways to do some more cooperation with the U.S. on that,” Patel told Defense News.

Patel added that both the US and Israel and focussing on hypersonic technologies as well. “I think that our enemies are going — and you know, we saw a lot of examples around the world — into hypersonic technologies. So with that, we need to upgrade our detection suite, which is playing a major role in hypersonic warfare, and make our interceptor that either could intercept at higher altitudes or be agile enough to intercept at lower altitudes. This is something that most of the countries that are of interest here will start to build, and I’m sure that in the future we are going to have a dialogue also with the MDA in regard to ideas that are in that area.”

When asked about the recent Abraham Accords between Israel and the UAE and Bahrain, Patel observed: “Since we have the same enemies, maybe we are going to have some mutual interests. I think that there is a potential to enlarge our defense partnership in the future, of course together with the U.S. But I can tell you that it’s step by step; it’s not a revolution that could be made in one day. Maybe in the future, we could enlarge those capabilities.”

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