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Israeli Ballistic Missile Defense Planning

[UPI/Space War] Martin Sieff - Israeli ballistic missile defense planning initially focused on preparing to deal with a possible nuclear threat from Iran. The excellent Israeli-made Arrow - probably the best ABM interceptor in the world for longer ranges and higher altitudes - was designed and upgraded with precisely this kind of threat in mind. A recent series of highly successful tests measured the effectiveness of upgraded versions of the Arrow against target missiles configured to perform like Iranian intermediate-range Shahab-3s. However, the Syrian ballistic missile threat to Israel, while non-nuclear, adds an ominous level of complexity to the threat that defense planners in Tel Aviv must deal with. Where Iranian missiles would be relatively few in number, Syria already has vastly more much smaller and shorter-range missiles, which pose a very different but also very serous threat. Israelis may even face a combination of Iranian and Syrian threats and need to defend themselves simultaneously against intermediate-range ballistic and cruise missiles with potential nuclear warheads from Iran, while at the same time having to deal with hundreds of shorter-range, lower trajectory weapons fired from Syria.
2007-08-31 01:00:00
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