Israel and the US have decided to cancel a massive missile defense drill planned
for the spring, amid concern the exercise could lead to an escalation with Iran,
senior defense officials said Sunday.
The sides are in discussion about
holding the drill toward the end of the year.
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April and called “Austere Challenge,”
the drill was supposed to see the
deployment of thousands of US troops and sophisticated US missile defense
systems in Israel.
In recent weeks, Defense Minister Ehud Barak led talks
with the Pentagon about the possibility of canceling the drill and holding it at
a later date.
Senior IDF sources told
The Jerusalem Post that the
announcement about the cancellation had been made on Friday. US military
officials said they were in talks with Israel about rescheduling the drill
toward the end of the year.
“We are going to be conducting the exercise
in the second half of 2012,” said Capt. John Ross, spokesman for the US European
Command (EUCOM). “It is not unusual for such exercises to be postponed, and
leaders of both sides believe that the best participation of all units will be
best achieved later in the year.”
The drill was supposed to include the
simulation of various missile defense scenarios with the objective of creating a
high level of interoperability so that, if needed, US missile defense systems
would be able to deploy in Israel and work with local defense systems during a
conflict.
Talks about postponing the drill took the Israel Air Force’s
Air Defense Division by surprise. Just last Thursday, top IAF officers
had said it was scheduled for this spring.
The exercise was expected to
be unique in its size and scope, and would also mark the first time EUCOM
commander Adm. James Stavridis participated in the simulations.
In the
event of war, the EUCOM commander would be responsible for approving Israeli requests to deploy US missile defense
systems in Israel.
The planned drill had raised tensions in the region
amid concern that Israel was planning an attack against Iran’s nuclear
facilities soon, and therefore was bolstering its defenses together with the
US.
Later this week, IDF Chief of Staff Lt.- Gen. Benny Gantz will fly to
Brussels for a meeting of NATO military commanders.
He will return to
Israel on Thursday to greet Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the US Joint Chiefs
of Staff, who will be arriving in Tel Aviv for his first official visit.