WarSclerotic

Israel Sees Increased Hezbollah Capability.

By Alon Ben-David
Tel Aviv

Israel is growing increasingly concerned about the deployment of Syrian-made M-600 missiles in Lebanon that are capable of accurately striking any point in Israel.

The 600-mm. solid-fuel M-600, which carries a 500-kg. (1,100-lb.) warhead, is a Syrian improvement to Iran’s Fateh-110 missile and has a range of more than 300 km. (185 mi.). But perhaps more critically, the weapon is fitted with a GPS-aided inertial navigation system, giving it an accuracy of better than 200 meters (655 ft.) circular error probable (CEP). This means that half the missiles fired will fall within a 200-meter circle of the intended target.

While Israel has been exposed to rocket fire for some time, those weapons have been largely unguided, minimizing the extent of damage. With the M-600, that could now change.

The combat arm of the militant Hezbollah organization has already deployed around 200 M-600 missiles in Lebanon, according to data presented by Avner Raz, chairman of Israel Military Industries, who spoke at the first international anti-ballistic missile conference in Israel on May 5.

“With that missile, Hezbollah is turning from a terror threat to a military one,” Uzi Rubin, former director of Israel’s ballistic missile defense organization told Aviation Week. “Hezbollah could shut down electricity and airports in Israel, obstruct the operation of the Israeli air force or the mobilization of the reserve army, and even interfere with the functionality of the General Staff in Tel Aviv.”

What’s more, “the deployment of Scud missiles by Hezbollah in Lebanon is just the tip of the iceberg,” Brig. Gen. Yossi Baidatz, head of research at military intelligence (MI), told the Knesset on May 4.

Israel’s MI claims that Syria has supplied Hezbollah with its latest model of the indigenously produced Scud D short-range ballistic missile, which has a range of 700 km. and an accuracy of 500 meters CEP. But while the liquid-fuel Scud B requires a 1-hr. refueling before launch, which exposes it to air strikes, the M-600 can be fired without any preparation.

“The combination of the vast quantities of rockets and missiles deployed in Lebanon, Syria and the Gaza Strip with their constantly improving accuracy will have a considerable impact on any future [military] campaign,” says Raz.

With that threat in mind, the Israeli air force recently concluded a decade-long effort of redeploying most of its assets in southern bases, positioning them as far as possible from the Lebanese border for maximum protection. Fighter squadrons, which remain in northern and central Israel, are constantly training in emergency deployment to southern bases, should their home bases come under missile and rocket attacks.

Moreover, all essential units of the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) across the military branches regularly undergo extensive training to be able to carry out their functions while under missile attack. The IDF also modified its methods of mobilizing the reserve army because of fears that its assembly areas will be showered with rockets.

Gen. Ilan Biran, chairman of Rafael Advanced Systems, warns that “the enormous amount of missiles that will be launched into Israel, even if all are conventionally armed, will create a new nonconventional threat.” (This week, the entire country will undergo a civil emergency drill simulating missile and rocket attacks from Lebanon, Syria, and Iran.)

In addition, Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, commander of the air defense corps, worries that “with tens of thousands of rockets and missiles directed at Israel, our active defense systems will not be able to provide hermetic protection.”

The nation is still in the process of building its multi-layered missile defense alignment, with the second-tier system—called David’s Sling—designed to counter heavy rockets and missiles such as the M-600. David’s Sling is still under development by Rafael and Raytheon.

Funded jointly by the U.S. and Israel, David’s Sling is intended to counter rockets and ballistic missiles fired from a range of 70-400 km., as well as cruise missiles and gliding bombs. It is expected to achieve initial operational capability in 2013.

The IDF is currently deploying the first two batteries of the lower tier system—Iron Dome, which is designed to repel rockets from ranges of 4-70 km. Initially funded solely by Israel, the Iron Dome recently received a boost when the U.S. government agreed to provide $200 million to complete development and procure additional batteries.

Currently, Israel’s missile defense relies mostly on the operational Arrow-2 batteries and its Patriot PAC-2 systems. “To counter the M-600 threat, the Patriot could provide some protection,” said Rubin, “but we need to accelerate the development of the David’s Sling.”

Credit: Israel Defense Forces

This entry was posted on May 18, 2010 at 11:44 AM 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.