The Israeli military allowed foreign reporters rare access to this heavily guarded Mediterranean base south of Tel Aviv on Thursday in what military officials described as an effort to showcase Israel’s technological advancements in the field of air defense and to underscore the array of threats from rockets and missiles.
The invitation came soon after the unveiling of Israel’s Iron Dome antirocket missile defense system. Two batteries successfully intercepted and destroyed in midair most of the Katyusha-type rockets fired by Palestinian militants from Gaza against cities in southern Israel during a flare-up of hostilities last month.
The reporters were also given access for the first time to one of the base’s inner sanctums: the main command-and-control center of the Arrow system that is designed to destroy ballistic missiles from enemies farther afield, like Syria and Iran.
Against a backdrop of various batteries, launchers and missiles on display at the base, Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the Air Defense Corps, said that over the past 10 years Israel had been developing a “basket of tools” and a new security concept to contend with the changing threats. He added that last month’s operation of the radar-guided Iron Dome system, which is still under evaluation, was the first time that a missile destroyed a short-range rocket.
The system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, an Israeli company, is also being marketed abroad.
The multitier battle against rockets and missiles represents a shift in Israel’s military doctrine, officials here said, with the threat ranging from relatively crude, short-range rockets fired out of Gaza with a 12- to 25-mile capacity to long-range ballistic missiles to be intercepted in the atmosphere or in space.
Senior military officers described a “new era” in defense, now that rockets and missiles have become the “main effort” of Israel’s enemies and the civilian population is on the front line. About 4,000 rockets were fired into Israel by the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah organization during the monthlong war in 2006, and rocket fire from Gaza is a persistent danger.
Alongside the traditional pillars of Israel’s overall military doctrine, including deterrence and attack capabilities, the new focus is on active air defense, early warning and passive defense, exemplified by bomb-proof secure rooms inside individual homes. A Ballistic Picture Control Center, responsible for detecting incoming threats and alerting the population, became fully operational last year.
In general, Israel has about a minute’s warning for every 100 kilometers, or roughly 62 miles, a rocket travels. That means that when rockets fly short distances from Gaza into southern Israel, the warning time is seconds.
Israel shot down its first enemy plane, an Egyptian Spitfire, in the hours after its declaration of independence in 1948. The last plane it shot down was in 1982.
The nature of the battlefield began to change in 1991 when, during the Persian Gulf war, Iraq fired 41 Scud missiles at Israel. The American Patriot surface-to-air missile system was deployed in Israel. But the Patriot was originally built as an antiaircraft system and was quickly modified to deal with incoming missiles.
The Arrow has its origins in President Ronald Reagan’s Strategic Defense Initiative. After Mr. Reagan began his so-called Star Wars program, Israel joined in the research and development effort. The Arrow system, which is made at Israel Aerospace Industries, has been partly financed by the United States.
The Arrow 2 intercepts missiles higher up, and one battery can cover major parts of Israel. The latest generation, known as Arrow 3, is now being developed.
The Arrow has been successful in intercepting ballistic missiles in live-fire tests but has not yet been used in a real field of battle.
Inside the command-and-control center, known as the Cube, officers practice intercepting incoming missiles in simulations on large computer screens. One officer demonstrated a simulated interception of incoming ballistic missiles from Lebanon and Syria. The mostly radar-based system identifies the incoming missiles, and a defense plan is drawn up, determining the type of response and the point of interception.
If a missile is identified as heading for an unpopulated area or the sea, no action is taken. But if a response is required, the officer approves the defense plan and authorizes the system to carry it out by the mundane act of pressing the F2 button.
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