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| Israel-Palestine-Jordan | |
| Israeli Anti-Missile System To Protect Military, Not Civilian Targets | |
| 2010-12-15 | |
"The residents of Israel shouldn't be under the illusion that someone will open an umbrella over the heads" in the event of a massive missile and rocket attack by Israel's enemies, he declared in a speech Sunday at the University of Haifa. Eisenkot's uncompromising statement did nothing to ease a spate of dire warnings by political and military chiefs in recent weeks that Israel's cities, particularly Tel Aviv and its densely populated environs, will be major targets in any new conflict. In November, the outgoing head of Military Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, gave an equally bleak forecast to the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, noting that "future wars will be much bigger, much wider and with many more casualties" than Israel's conflicts in Lebanon in 2006 and the Gaza Strip in the winter of 2008-09. The key factor here is that Iran, Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon and Hamas in Gaza are expected to bombard Israel relentlessly with an unprecedented firestorm of missiles and rockets if hostilities break out once again. Israel got a taste of that in the 34-day 2006 war, when Hezbollah unleashed nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, the heaviest bombardment Israelis have ever suffered. These weapons, mainly unguided rockets, killed around 50 people. Next time, Israel is likely to be hammered with far greater broadsides using missiles with far greater range, accuracy and destructive power than ever before. Fatality forecasts run into thousands. The Israeli military estimates Hezbollah has at least 42,000 rockets and missiles, hundreds of which can hit anywhere in Israel. Syria is reported to be receiving advanced missiles from Iran and to be upgrading the capabilities of its existing arsenal. Iran reportedly has more than 100 Shehab-3b ballistic missiles deployed and to be developing a more powerful weapon, the Sejjil-2, capable of hitting Israeli targets. After 2006, when Israel's vulnerabilities to missile attack were exposed for all to see, the country's defense industry raced to develop defense systems to counter this new threat. The Arrow system, capable of intercepting Iranian ballistic missiles at high altitude and at long range, was already in operation, largely funded by the Pentagon. But this system is useless against shorter range weapons. Enter a system called Iron Dome, designed to counter the short-range rockets like those used by Hezbollah and Hamas, and another, called David's Sling to defend against medium-range missiles. Two batteries of Iron Dome, built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, are ready. But military planners say at least 20 are needed if the system is to be anywhere near effective. Rafael is still developing David's Sling and the first live-fire test is scheduled for the next few months. | |
| Posted by: Anonymoose |
| #3 Tact doesn't fly far with the Israelis. They are more able to understand and accept this necessity than the average American. I wish our government was as forthcoming. |
| Posted by: gorb 2010-12-15 23:04 |
| #2 NOT-NECESSARILY-UNRELATED... * WAFF > THE CHANGE IN EAST ASIA, as ilustr by CHANGES IN THE DYNAMIC AS PER NORTH-KOREA-VS-SOUTH KOREA. * SAME > THE MISSLE CRISIS. US-vs-Iran [+ Hugo = Iran LRBMS in Venezuela]. ARTIC > AUTHOR = Iran's Ahmadinejad feels he can safely put Missles in Venezuela because he perceives POTUS Bammer as WEAK. MOUD BELIEVES OBAMA IS NO JFK, i.e. WILL NOT STAND WHERE IT MATTERS IN A CRISIS DESPITE EXTANT MISTAKES IN HANDLING; + THAT THE RADICAL, WINNER-TAKES-IT-ALL MOUD IS NOT THE BLUSTERY, BUT CAUTIOUS, NIKITA KRUSCHEV THAT JFK FACED IN CUBA. IOW, MOUD = thinks POTUS BAMMER WILL QUICKLY OR ULTIMATELY SURRENDER = "BLINK FIRST". Unlike the aftermath of the Cuban Missle Crisis, there may not be a post-MIKITA LEONID BREZHNEV TO BEGIN THE GREATEST SOVIET AMERIKAN MIL + NUCLEAR BUILDUP IN OWG USSA = OWG USRoA HISTORY??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-12-15 22:57 |
| #1 Nothing that the US-NATO + USSR-WARPAC didn't employ during the Cold War, i.e. that the most effective way of protecting civilians is to protect the nation's ability to mil counterrespond wid a high prob of success. aka DETERRENCE. However, as Iranian + Syrian LRBMS + other MilSys improve over time, IMO TERRSTRIKES INSIDE ISRAEL WILL EVOL FROM ATTACKING CIVILIAN TARGETS TO ATTACKING MILITARY ONES, ESPEC BMD AS PART OF A UNILATERAL OR PREEMPTIVE "FIRST-STRIKE" BY SYRIA + IRAN, ETC. |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2010-12-15 22:39 |