Subscribe free to our newsletters via your
. 24/7 Space News .




MISSILE NEWS
Israelis brace for missile firestorm
by Staff Writers
Tel Aviv, Israel (UPI) Dec 6, 2010


For months, military leaders and commentators have been warning Israelis their cities face an unprecedented threat of missile attacks even as the country invests heavily in developing air-defense systems experts say cannot provide adequate protection.

This uncharacteristically downbeat theme was summed up by Maj. Gen. Amod Yadlin, the outgoing chief of Military Intelligence, in a Nov. 21 briefing to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Cabinet.

"Tel Aviv will be a front line in the next conflict," he warned.

A few days earlier, he'd told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that "future wars … will be much bigger, much wider and with many more casualties" than Israelis have experienced before.

Uzi Rubin, director of Israel's Missile defense Organization in 1991-99 and a pre-eminent missile analyst in the region, has declared that Syria and Lebanon's Hezbollah have 1,500 warheads capable of hitting Tel Aviv, Israel's largest conurbation, and the country's industrial and financial heartland.

Around 2 million people live in the greater Tel Aviv area, which was hit by 36 Scud-type missiles by Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein during the 1991 Gulf War.

"The enemy has achieved aerial supremacy without even having aircraft," Rubin said, referring to Hezbollah and the Palestinians' Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Israeli leaders say Hezbollah has more than 40,000 missiles and rockets, almost four times the number it had when it fought Israel in a 34-day war in 2006.

During that conflict Hezbollah fired nearly 4,000 rockets into northern Israel, about 120 a day. That's the heaviest bombardment Israel has experienced.

Most of Hezbollah's arsenal consists of short-range weapons but it is also reported to have Syrian M600 missiles, Iranian Fateh-110 guided rockets and Soviet-built Scud-B ballistic missiles.

Syrian has dozens of Scuds and Iran has an estimated 200 Shehab-3b ballistic missiles but is developing the more advanced and more accurate Sejjil-2.

So it would only need a few dozen of the larger missiles to wreak havoc and inflict far more damage than Hezbollah did in 2006, forcing the evacuation of tens of thousands of civilians.

Reuven Pedatzur of the liberal daily Haaretz, who is a longtime critic of how Israel will be defended against large-scale missile attacks, said that implicit in the statements made by Yadlin and Rubin "is a worrisome fact: Israel is investing billions of dollars in the development of a defensive system that will not be effective in a crisis and formulating an erroneous strategy for dealing with the ballistic missile/rocket threat."

After the 2006 war, there was a clamor in Israel for defensive systems to counter short- and medium-range projectiles. The result was a strategy to construct a three-layered defense system to shoot down the different types of missiles.

The high-altitude, long-range Arrow-2 built by state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries and the Boeing Co. would take care of Iran's ballistic weapons.

It has been operational for several years and a more advanced Arrow-3 variant is under development.

Other systems known as Iron Dome, built by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, and David's Sling, being developed by Rafael and Raytheon of the United States, would handle the short- and medium-range weapons like Hezbollah's Katyushas and Hamas' Grads and Qassams.

Iron Dome was unveiled with great fanfare in July after reportedly passing several test interceptions with flying colors. But plans to deploy the initial two batteries were shelved in November.

The military said the delay in deployment was caused by the need for extra training for the crews manning a complex system.

But many viewed the military's move with concern that the much-vaunted missile defense shield may not be as good as it's cracked up to be.

When Iron Dome was proposed in 2006, it was scheduled to become operational in 2012 but Rafael was paid a hefty bonus to get it working ahead of schedule.

Four years after Hezbollah exposed Israel's vulnerability to attack by short- and medium-range rockets, and billions of dollars in development programs, it seems that Israel's cities and air bases are still exposed.

The statements made by Yadlin, Rubin and others about the dangers the country now faces indicate Israel's leaders are preparing the country for the worst.

.


Related Links
Learn about missile defense at SpaceWar.com
All about missiles at SpaceWar.com






Comment on this article via your Facebook, Yahoo, AOL, Hotmail login.

Share this article via these popular social media networks
del.icio.usdel.icio.us DiggDigg RedditReddit GoogleGoogle








MISSILE NEWS
US suspected Yemen had portable missiles: cables
Washington (AFP) Dec 4, 2010
US officials suspected Yemen had stocks of shoulder-fired missiles, a major concern if they fell in the wrong hands, while the Yemeni leader sought to use newfound leverage for US aid, secret memos said. Although Yemen's Defense Ministry insisted it had no such cache of the weapons, an informant told US diplomats that the government agency in fact "does indeed have MANPADS, but would never s ... read more


MISSILE NEWS
Robotic Excavations Could Help Get Helium 3 From Moon To Earth

A Softer Landing on the Moon

Neptec Wins Canadian Space Agency Contract To Develop A New Generation Of Lunar Rovers

Mission to far side of moon proposed

MISSILE NEWS
Drilling For The Future Of Science

Opportunity Imaging Small Craters On Way To Endeavour

Opportunity Making Progress To Endeavour Crater

Spain Supplies Weather Station For Next Mars Rover

MISSILE NEWS
SwRI Researchers Continue Starfighters Suborbital Space Flight Training

X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle Completes First Flight

Website Hosts Space Transcripts

Roscosmos And NASA To Seal Deal On Joint Projects

MISSILE NEWS
China Builds Theme Park In Spaceport

Tiangong Space Station Plans Progessing

China-Made Satellite Keeps Remote Areas In Venezuela Connected

Optis Software To Optimize Chinese Satellite Design

MISSILE NEWS
NASA Seeks Nonprofit To Manage ISS National Lab Research

Expedition 25 Returns Home

Crews approved for space station mission

Soyuz crew land safely on earth from ISS

MISSILE NEWS
ISRO Hands Two Contracts To Arianespace

US company readies first space capsule launch

Kazakh Space Agency Seeks Extra Funding For New Baikonur Launch Pad

Aerojet Propulsion Raises Japan's First Quasi-Zenith Satellite MICHIBIKI

MISSILE NEWS
Super-Earth Has An Atmosphere, But Is It Steamy Or Gassy

First Super-Earth Atmosphere Analyzed

Super Earth Could Be Steaming Hot Or Full Of Gas

500th 'extrasolar' planet discovered

MISSILE NEWS
Video games get kids to eat more veg, fruit: study

Cell phone exposure linked to bad behavior in kids: study

Next-Gen Earth Imaging Satellite Advances To Critical Design Review Phase

Google unveils new smartphone, the Nexus S




The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA Portal Reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties. Advertising does not imply endorsement,agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement