Pentagon slashes budgets for missile defense projects with Israel

The Pentagon on Tuesday released its budget for the 2017 fiscal year that showed the Defense Department will slash its budget for cooperation with the Israeli defense industry. The US missile defense agency's budget for development of the David's Sling system for interception of medium and long-range missiles, which is being jointly developed by Israel's Rafael and American defense contractor Raytheon, will be cut from $268 million in 2016 to $104 million, while the budget for the Iron Dome missile defense system is to be reduced from $55 million to $42 million.