In the News
The United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act proposes further collaboration on sectors including defense manufacturing and counter-drone and tunneling technologies
By Marc Rod
February 13, 2025
Credit: Jewish Insider
A bipartisan group of House and Senate lawmakers is introducing legislation in both chambers that proposes tens of millions in additional funding annually for U.S.-Israel defense cooperation and would establish a series of new cooperative programs.
The House version of the legislation, the United States-Israel Defense Partnership Act, announced earlier this week, is being backed by Reps. Joe Wilson (R-SC) and Donald Norcross (D-NJ). Sens. Dan Sullivan (R-AK), Gary Peters (D-MI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Pete Ricketts (R-NE) and Jacky Rosen (D-NV) appear to be introducing corresponding legislation in the Senate.
The bill combines and advances efforts that Congress has worked on in recent years on cooperation in defense manufacturing, counter-drone and missile systems, advanced defense technology and counter-tunneling, which have all been part of recent defense and government funding bills, including last year’s national security supplemental bill.
“This critical legislation will deepen our bilateral defense cooperation to counter unmanned systems, artificial intelligence, and quantum. We must work together to protect American families!” Wilson said on X.
The legislation instructs the U.S. to engage with Israel about bringing the Jewish state further into the U.S. technological and industrial base. U.S. lawmakers have been working to strengthen and expand the U.S. defense industry, which has been strained by the ongoing wars in Ukraine and the Middle East and preparations for a potential war in the Indopacific.
The bill would establish a new joint U.S.-Israel program to develop technologies and strategies to counter drones and other unmanned aerial systems (UAS), and would authorize $150 million for the program annually from 2026 through 2030.
It additionally proposes an increase in funding from $55 million to $75 million annually for existing counter-UAS programming, and extends it through 2028.
The bill would create a new cooperative program in emerging defense technologies, focusing on areas like artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, robotics, quantum and automation, with costs to be shared between the two countries.
It would establish a Pentagon defense innovation unit in Israel, to work with both the Israeli defense ministry and the Israeli private sector and to work to counter Iran’s development of dual-use defense technologies.
The bill would further extend current U.S.-Israel anti-tunneling cooperative programs from 2026 to 2028, and proposes increasing funding for the program from $50 million to $80 million annually.
And it would extend through 2029 U.S. authorities to stockpile weaponry in Israel, which Israel is able to tap into in emergencies.
Advancing ongoing efforts to integrate air and missile defenses among U.S. allies in the Middle East — an outgrowth of the Abraham Accords and Israel’s move into U.S. Central Command — the bill requests an assessment of the current status of that integration and how it can be expanded to be provided to Congress, including potential new funding and authorization requirements.
Any funding laid out in the bill would not be guaranteed without a separate congressional appropriation.
AIPAC is backing the legislation, saying on social media, “Israel is a vital U.S. ally working with United States to keep Americans safer. Thank you [Wilson] and [Norcross] for leading this important bipartisan legislation to deepen U.S.-Israel defense cooperation and better prepare both countries to overcome shared threats.”