(NSI News Source Info) ASHKELON, Israel - September 19, 2009: As Israel pushes for international action against Iran's nuclear program, it is steadily assembling one of the world's most advanced missile defense systems, a multilayered collection of weapons meant to guard against everything from the shorter-range Grads that have been used to strike Israeli towns such as this one to intercontinental rockets. 
Israel is making progress on the lowest level of its four-tiered anti-missile system. This tier is dubbed Iron Dome. The other elements of the system for countering ballistic threats are on the second level David’s Sling on which I reported earlier and Patriot missile batteries. The air force is currently considering upgrading the batteries to the newer PAC-3 model. Israel has a number of U.S.-supplied Patriot PAC-3 left over from the 2003 Iraq war. Levels three and four will be made up by Arrow and Arrow 2 systems, respectively.
The effort, partly financed by the United States and incorporating advanced U.S. radar and other technology, has been progressing quietly for two decades but now has reached a level of maturity that Israeli defense and other analysts say could begin changing strategic decisions in the region. Centered on the already-deployed Arrow 2 antimissile system, it is being extended to include a longer-range Arrow 3, the David's Sling rocket designed to hit lower- and slower-flying cruise missiles, and the Iron Dome system intended to destroy Grads, Katyushas, Qassams and other shorter-range projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
With the Arrow system in operation and the Iron Dome due for deployment next year, Israel "has something to stabilize the situation: the knowledge that an attack will fail," said Uzi Rubin, a private defense consultant who ran Israel's missile defense program in the 1990s. Iran, he said, could not be assured of a successful first strike against Israel, while groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon may find one of their favored tactics undermined.
Advances in Iran's rocket technology, coupled with its ongoing nuclear program, are chief concerns of the United States and Europe, as well as of Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Alongside diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to curb its nuclear research, missile defense programs have been designed with Iran explicitly in mind.
The Obama administration this week decided to scrap a Bush-era plan to deploy a longer-range antimissile system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and said it would move toward a more intermediate system that better matches its assessment of what Iran can do.
In Israel, the issue is considered one of the country's highest foreign-policy priorities. There have been varying Israeli assessments about Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon: Although the head of the Mossad intelligence agency told a Knesset committee this summer that Iran may be five years away from acquiring a bomb, the head of military intelligence has said it could happen by the end of the year. But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu takes it as an imminent threat.
Iran's program "is something that threatens Israel and threatens the region and threatens the peace of the world," Netanyahu said during a recent visit to Germany. "There is not much time." A recent unannounced trip by Netanyahu to Russia was thought by some analysts here to be linked with the broad set of issues surrounding Iran, including Russia's possible sale of advanced antiaircraft missiles to the country and the likelihood that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear facilities if the United States and Europe cannot find another solution.
The steady growth of the country's missile defenses also sheds a different light on Israel's military doctrine and sense of vulnerability.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said this week that he did not consider Iran's nuclear program an "existential issue" because "Israel is strong." Part of that strength lies in its own nuclear capabilities -- never acknowledged but widely presumed to exist -- and part lies in the assumption that the United States would stand behind the country if it came under attack. But it also rests in the calculation that enough of the country's air bases and other military facilities would survive a first strike that it would be able to effectively retaliate.
The sort of deterrence -- guaranteed retaliation -- that the United States and Russia once achieved by deploying nuclear warheads in submarines and keeping bombers aloft is what Israel is striving for through its antimissile systems.
Iran "is radical, but radical does not mean irrational," said Rubin, the private defense consultant. "They want to change the world, not commit suicide."
The program has its origins in the 1980s and concern about Syria's suspected acquisition of chemical weapons. It took on added urgency in the Persian Gulf War, when nearly 40 Iraqi scud missiles hit the Tel Aviv area.
The Arrow was deployed in 2000, and since then Israel and the United States have conducted a biennial joint missile defense exercise, called Juniper Cobra, to work on integrating the weapons, radar and other systems of the two countries. Israel, for example, now has the advanced U.S. X-Band radar stationed in the Negev desert. Israeli defense industry officials say the country also has virtually real-time access to some U.S. satellite data, an important piece of its early-warning system.
The next joint exercise is scheduled for October.
As concern shifted to the threat of long-range missiles from Iran -- the countries lie a little more than 700 miles from each other at the closest point, well within the known range of Iranian rockets -- it also focused on the shorter-range weapons that Hezbollah and Hamas have turned on Israel in the past few years.
The barrages fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war led officials to accelerate work on a short-range defense system, as did recent Grad strikes against Ashkelon, a Mediterranean city of more than 122,000 and site of major electricity, desalinization and other facilities.
As it stands, "we have no defenses, no shelters, no public buildings being protected," said Alan Marcus, the city's director of strategic planning and architect of a response plan developed to cope with some 80 missile strikes since 2006.
"What do we do? Close the beach and tell people there might be a missile attack?"
Beginning next year, Israeli defense officials say, the Iron Dome system should provide some relief. The mobile launchers initially will be placed around towns and facilities near the Gaza Strip but may ultimately be deployed throughout the country.
The system is not without controversy. It has not, for example, proved effective against mortars and could leave the towns closest to the border areas vulnerable, including such chief targets as Sderot. Critics have pushed for other systems, including a chemical laser that Israel was jointly developing with the United States, or the rapid-fire Phalanx guns that can be used to protect important facilities such as power plants.
There is also concern that groups such as Hamas could try to overwhelm the system by firing large barrages of comparatively cheap, homemade Qassams, perhaps not expecting to do damage so much as forcing Israel to spend tens of thousands of dollars a shot to knock them down.
But Israeli officials say they see systems like Iron Dome as crucial to the country's military planning, both by preventing damage and diminishing the need to retaliate.
Though many of the rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah land on empty ground, "one of these times one of the Qassams will hit a bus, and then the government will have to make a decision" about how to react, said Israel Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror. "There is a bigger issue here than how much it costs. It is going to give us some answers."
Israel is making progress on the lowest level of its four-tiered anti-missile system. This tier is dubbed Iron Dome. The other elements of the system for countering ballistic threats are on the second level David’s Sling on which I reported earlier and Patriot missile batteries. The air force is currently considering upgrading the batteries to the newer PAC-3 model. Israel has a number of U.S.-supplied Patriot PAC-3 left over from the 2003 Iraq war. Levels three and four will be made up by Arrow and Arrow 2 systems, respectively.
The effort, partly financed by the United States and incorporating advanced U.S. radar and other technology, has been progressing quietly for two decades but now has reached a level of maturity that Israeli defense and other analysts say could begin changing strategic decisions in the region. Centered on the already-deployed Arrow 2 antimissile system, it is being extended to include a longer-range Arrow 3, the David's Sling rocket designed to hit lower- and slower-flying cruise missiles, and the Iron Dome system intended to destroy Grads, Katyushas, Qassams and other shorter-range projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip and southern Lebanon.
With the Arrow system in operation and the Iron Dome due for deployment next year, Israel "has something to stabilize the situation: the knowledge that an attack will fail," said Uzi Rubin, a private defense consultant who ran Israel's missile defense program in the 1990s. Iran, he said, could not be assured of a successful first strike against Israel, while groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon may find one of their favored tactics undermined.
Advances in Iran's rocket technology, coupled with its ongoing nuclear program, are chief concerns of the United States and Europe, as well as of Israel and other Middle Eastern countries. Alongside diplomatic efforts to convince Iran to curb its nuclear research, missile defense programs have been designed with Iran explicitly in mind.
The Obama administration this week decided to scrap a Bush-era plan to deploy a longer-range antimissile system in the Czech Republic and Poland, and said it would move toward a more intermediate system that better matches its assessment of what Iran can do.
In Israel, the issue is considered one of the country's highest foreign-policy priorities. There have been varying Israeli assessments about Iran's progress toward a nuclear weapon: Although the head of the Mossad intelligence agency told a Knesset committee this summer that Iran may be five years away from acquiring a bomb, the head of military intelligence has said it could happen by the end of the year. But Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu takes it as an imminent threat.
Iran's program "is something that threatens Israel and threatens the region and threatens the peace of the world," Netanyahu said during a recent visit to Germany. "There is not much time." A recent unannounced trip by Netanyahu to Russia was thought by some analysts here to be linked with the broad set of issues surrounding Iran, including Russia's possible sale of advanced antiaircraft missiles to the country and the likelihood that Israel will strike Iran's nuclear facilities if the United States and Europe cannot find another solution.
The steady growth of the country's missile defenses also sheds a different light on Israel's military doctrine and sense of vulnerability.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak said this week that he did not consider Iran's nuclear program an "existential issue" because "Israel is strong." Part of that strength lies in its own nuclear capabilities -- never acknowledged but widely presumed to exist -- and part lies in the assumption that the United States would stand behind the country if it came under attack. But it also rests in the calculation that enough of the country's air bases and other military facilities would survive a first strike that it would be able to effectively retaliate.
The sort of deterrence -- guaranteed retaliation -- that the United States and Russia once achieved by deploying nuclear warheads in submarines and keeping bombers aloft is what Israel is striving for through its antimissile systems.
Iran "is radical, but radical does not mean irrational," said Rubin, the private defense consultant. "They want to change the world, not commit suicide."
The program has its origins in the 1980s and concern about Syria's suspected acquisition of chemical weapons. It took on added urgency in the Persian Gulf War, when nearly 40 Iraqi scud missiles hit the Tel Aviv area.
The Arrow was deployed in 2000, and since then Israel and the United States have conducted a biennial joint missile defense exercise, called Juniper Cobra, to work on integrating the weapons, radar and other systems of the two countries. Israel, for example, now has the advanced U.S. X-Band radar stationed in the Negev desert. Israeli defense industry officials say the country also has virtually real-time access to some U.S. satellite data, an important piece of its early-warning system.
The next joint exercise is scheduled for October.
As concern shifted to the threat of long-range missiles from Iran -- the countries lie a little more than 700 miles from each other at the closest point, well within the known range of Iranian rockets -- it also focused on the shorter-range weapons that Hezbollah and Hamas have turned on Israel in the past few years.
The barrages fired by Hezbollah at northern Israel during the 2006 Israel-Lebanon war led officials to accelerate work on a short-range defense system, as did recent Grad strikes against Ashkelon, a Mediterranean city of more than 122,000 and site of major electricity, desalinization and other facilities.
As it stands, "we have no defenses, no shelters, no public buildings being protected," said Alan Marcus, the city's director of strategic planning and architect of a response plan developed to cope with some 80 missile strikes since 2006.
"What do we do? Close the beach and tell people there might be a missile attack?"
Beginning next year, Israeli defense officials say, the Iron Dome system should provide some relief. The mobile launchers initially will be placed around towns and facilities near the Gaza Strip but may ultimately be deployed throughout the country.
The system is not without controversy. It has not, for example, proved effective against mortars and could leave the towns closest to the border areas vulnerable, including such chief targets as Sderot. Critics have pushed for other systems, including a chemical laser that Israel was jointly developing with the United States, or the rapid-fire Phalanx guns that can be used to protect important facilities such as power plants.
There is also concern that groups such as Hamas could try to overwhelm the system by firing large barrages of comparatively cheap, homemade Qassams, perhaps not expecting to do damage so much as forcing Israel to spend tens of thousands of dollars a shot to knock them down.
But Israeli officials say they see systems like Iron Dome as crucial to the country's military planning, both by preventing damage and diminishing the need to retaliate.
Though many of the rockets fired by Hamas and Hezbollah land on empty ground, "one of these times one of the Qassams will hit a bus, and then the government will have to make a decision" about how to react, said Israel Defense Ministry spokesman Shlomo Dror. "There is a bigger issue here than how much it costs. It is going to give us some answers."
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