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The Ministry of Defense is expected to spend 30 billion shekels ($ 8.3 billion) over the next decade for the country's missile defense system. The sum includes an increase in spending of NIS 15 billion to be submitted to the security cabinet next Sunday for approval, the bulk of which is for missile defense.
The plan is to spend 3 billion shekels a year on missile defense between 2019 and 2028, half of which will come from the current defense budget and half from the revival of defense spending. The increase in spending will come from the Ministry of Finance and should not result in cuts from other government departments.
In practice, the new plan would replace an existing multi-year defense spending plan that Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon developed with the then Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya'alon. Defense officials said the increase of 15 billion shekels was needed because of the significant increase in the threats Israel faces.
It should settle demands that the current Defense Minister, Avidgor Lieberman, has made over the past year to increase defense spending. The figure exceeds anything that Lieberman had previously requested.
However, a senior Defense Ministry official described the announced boost to the "gadgets" of the missile defense budget in anticipation of the upcoming Knesset elections, to be held at the end of the year. ;next year.
"No serious discussions have yet taken place," the official said. "There is no agreement," he added, saying that the discussions were limited to the question of principle and that at this stage there was in fact NIS 8.3 billion reduction in defense spending.
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