The Pentagon has requested $220.3 million in 2014 to bolster Israel's "Iron Dome" missile defense system despite broader cuts to US military spending, according to budget documents. The US Missile Defense Agency also is asking for an additional $175.9 million in fiscal year 2015 for Israel's homegrown missile defense network, according to the agency's budget proposal posted online. The Pentagon already invested $204 million on the system in 2011 and $70 million in 2012.

Israel was marking Memorial Day from sunset on Sunday, remembering fallen troops and civilian deaths in terror attacks. Minute-long sirens sounded nationwide at 8.00 pm (1700 GMT), marking the beginning of the memorial day. According to numbers published by the Defence Ministry, since the year 1860 -- when the first Jewish neighbourhood in Jerusalem outside of the Old City was founded and Israel considers the beginning of the Israel-Arab conflict -- 23,085 soldiers and members of the security forces died in the line of duty, including 92 in the past year.

Israel's huge new offshore gas resource offers its enemies an obvious target and gives its navy, long overshadowed by other branches of the Israeli armed forces, a big job that will require extra spending.On patrol boat 836, circling two gas platforms in choppy Mediterranean waters, Captain Ilan Lavi flipped through pictures of the possible threats: boat bombs, drones, submarine vessels, rockets and missiles."We have to build an entire new defensive envelope," said Lavi, head of the navy's planning department who talks as knowledgeably about the financial aspects of the gas i

Israeli, Greek and US warships concluded a joint two-week Mediterranean naval exercise codenamed "Noble Dina" on Thursday, the Israeli military said. "The exercise, which took place in the Mediterranean Sea, was conducted in order to assess the level of operational coordination between the three navies," it said. It said that participants were drilled in "search and rescue, immediacy and efficiency of the response to maritime emergencies, maritime evacuation, navigation and fire drills."