WarSclerotic

DEBKAfile, Political Analysis, Espionage, Terrorism, Security.

Iran’s Fajr-5 points at Israel

Iran wound up its biggest ever naval exercise, Velayat 89, Wednesday, May 12, by simultaneously firing 30 short-range, surface-to-surface Fajr missiles of the same types as the brand-new, advanced weapons in the Lebanese Hizballah’s armory, debkafile‘s military sources report. The display was Tehran’s way of advising Israel of the heavily upgraded capabilities Hizballah has in store for the Jewish state and also responding to the big war game Israel conducted on its northern borders from Sunday through Thursday, May 9-12.

Compared with earlier models, the new Fajr-5 is more accurate and carries a bigger payload. The types Hizballah used against northern Israeli in 2006 had a range of 75 kilometers, reaching as far as Hadera, 45 kilometers short of Tel Aviv and the Jezreel Valley on the southern fringes of Galilee. The version fired in the Iranian exercise could reach deeper into Israel’s heavily populated regions, around Netanya and Herzliya, at a distance of 110 kilometers from the Lebanese border.
The new Fajar 5 is also highly mobile and usable at short notice.
In their exercise, the Iranians also fired the older Fajar 3 (“Dawn”) missile, which has been in the Hizballah arsenal since before 2006. Their range has been extended from 45 to 70 kilometers.

Wednesday, too, Brig. Gen. Nissim Peretz, head of the IDF Logistics Division, disclosed that Israel’s armed forces had begun dismantling the large logistics bases holding munitions, weapons, fuel and provisions stores and scatterng them among smaller and better protected facilities.

This is in line with the advance preparation of the home front for missile attack in potential war hostilities. Brig. Peretz explained that the relocation of these vital military facilities would ensure the IDF’s ability to fight without interruption and have supplies of essentials available – even when under missile assault.

Just as the home front must be prepared to sustain attack, said the officer, so too must military installations to the rear be secured in good time.

This entry was posted on May 13, 2010 at 5:29 PM and is filed under Iran / Israel War. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site.