The New Battle Strategy in Israel

Creating Effective Missile Defense Systems
By C. Hart

“Syria is the largest chemical superpower in the Middle East,” according to Major General (Res.) Yaacov Amidror, who addressed an audience of Israeli government and industry military experts at a missile defense forum in Jerusalem on Monday, October 22, 2007. Considered the first public forum of its kind to happen in Israel, speakers addressed the critical need for missile defense for Israel’s national security. The meeting was sponsored by the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs (JCPA) and the Israel Missile Defense Association (IMDA).
Amidror, who is one of JCPA’s Program Directors, gave scenarios of the potential battles Israel faces in the future, asking the rhetorical question of how the IDF will deploy itself. Speaking of the dangers Israel faces from its Syrian neighbor, Amidror said mid-range Syrian rockets threaten Israel’s northern region, including the home front and the IDF. “We have not gone through one war where the IDF needed defense before the war,” he admitted. But, Amidror said, now the IDF needs defense on strategic bases.

The Syrian army is supplying itself with large amounts of missiles, and he believes that Syria could accomplish in hours what it took Hizballah 33 days to accomplish during the 2006 Second Lebanon War. At that time, Israel was barraged with rockets fired from Lebanon, with no way of stopping the terrorist army from hitting northern Israeli populations.

According to Amidror, short, medium and long range rocket fire is problematic for Israel, and each stratum imposes threats, especially the heavier rockets from Syria, including Scuds with chemical warheads. He stated that if the IDF cannot remove the missiles then the army will have no other choice but to control the area, implying much greater use of ground forces in a potential conflict threatening the Jewish state.

Today, the missile threat against Israel hits at the very core of its defense needs, according to military experts. Palestinian terror groups and Hamas continue to attack Israel with short range Kassam rockets launched from Gaza, reaching Israel’s border towns and the western Negev. These rockets can be carried on someone’s back. The power of the rocket is in the ability of a terrorist to shift it around and fire it from anywhere. Hizballah launched the similar Katyusha rockets from Lebanon last summer, as well as longer-range missiles that hit deep into the northern part of Israel. Hizballah, Syria and Iran say they now have rockets that can reach any part of the country.

Amidror believes that in future wars, much of Israel’s home front will spend time in bomb shelters. Regions will be evacuated. There will be a potential for many casualties if heavier long-range missiles fall, and if people are not evacuated in time. The home front could become the focus. Since the IDF is a small army, turning its efforts towards the home front could result in the IDF being away from the main action on the battlefield. This would be a potentially serious problem for Israel.

So, why has Israel not been more prepared?
Yoash Tsiddon-Chatto, Chief of Operations and Planning for Israel’s Air Force (the IAF) on the eve of the Six Day War, said, “It’s a matter of concepts.” Speaking to ThreatsWatch, he admitted that Israel’s defense forces knew the Katyusha’s were in Hizballah’s arsenal for a long time. “But, the idea was, let the Katyusha’s rest. Since they didn’t use them they will probably not use them, and we have other priorities and budget restrictions and so forth. The IDF didn’t do anything. Unfortunately, we react more than we act… You always fight the last war not the next war.”

Now that Israel has learned from its mistakes during the Second Lebanon War, missile defense systems are being perfected to defend the home front against all ranges of rockets. But, it is the shorter range rocket attacks that Israel has not been able to respond to effectively. Israeli officials are now considering what technologies exist elsewhere along with budgetary considerations. In the meantime, according to military analysts, current rocket attacks have put the state in a strategic corner, and with no immediate solution, there could be an erosion of public trust in the government and military.

Amidror pointed out that in the Middle East, there is a constant existential threat to Israel of missile attacks. In an interview with ThreatsWatch, he explained, “If the state of Israel will be under missile and rocket fire from all around; from Iran and the long-range; Hizballah and others on the front; it will be a situation in which to bring the civilians from home; to mobilize them; and to bring them to their bases. Then, to move them into the front will be more complicated that in the past.”
And, what if there is a pre-emptive strike by Israel against a hostile neighbor, like Syria? “The pre-emptive strike I think probably will be made by the air force; and the air force is not dependent on any mobilization. The air force is strong enough to do it with permanent forces.”

Amidror was adamant that if Israel fights a conventional war with Syria in the future, the only legitimate targets are political and military. Under no circumstances should Israel fire missiles indiscriminately on Damascus, hurting the population. “If we have targets which are legitimate targets inside Damascus, we shall destroy them immediately… I think that civilians are not legitimate targets for the state of Israel in the case of war. To launch missiles into Damascus, without having any clear target, but to kill Syrians, I think that morally, Israel should not do it.”

Asked about a scenario where Syria might launch a pre-emptive strike against Israel using a missile with a chemical warhead, Amidror responded, “What I talked about is conventional, and we should not be the first to move it from conventional to non-conventional. If the Syrian’s or others will use non-conventional mass destruction systems, it is a totally different story.”
As Israeli military experts deal with threats and responses from the perspective of Israel’s national security needs, missile defense becomes a strategic consideration on the IDF agenda. It may be a bit late in the game, but Israel is now focused on advanced defense operations against a full range of threats. The IDF continues to plan battlefront scenarios to assure the state’s national security will never again be in jeopardy.

Meanwhile, the unprecedented proliferation of missiles in the Middle East is cause for other nations around the world to work together, addressing the critical priority for comprehensive, accurate, and cost effective missile defense systems that will meet today’s growing global security needs.
C. Hart writes for ThreatsWatch from Jerusalem, Israel.


http://analysis.threatswatch.org/2007/10/t...trategy-in-isr/

Comments :
How’s the progress on the THEL, Israel pulled out fm the program in early ’06 and joined again around Aug, 2006??http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htada/articles/20060815.aspx

Related:
http://www.strategypage.com/htmw/htada/art...s/20060725.aspx
http://www.strategypage.com/dls/articles20...00681803412.asp
http://militarynuts.com/index.php?showtopic=1002
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsourc...ory/lebnew.html

Israel: Ready for harder military tactics

As Israel seems to perceive a rising 'threat factor' on its borders, military leaders seem prepared to go for harder and more overt tactics regardless of international opprobrium.
By Brooks Tigner in Brussels for ISN Security Watch (01/11/07)

Attitudes among Israeli government and military leaders are hardening over the use of military power to guarantee the country's security, as evidenced by the numerous reports of Israel's strike in early September against a nascent nuclear facility in adjacent Syria.
Yet while Israel makes no bones about not tolerating any nuclear weapons capability in its region (other than its own), the 6 September operation was highly covert and continues to be shrouded with "no comments," with officials neither confirming nor denying the strike.
The wider policy question is: Does Israel perceive a rising "threat factor" around its borders and, if so, will it go for harder and more overt military tactics in general than in the recent past?
Recent discussions with government, industry and policy experts here suggest the likely answer is "yes" - and nevermind the attendant international opprobrium such a course might entail. They spoke with ISN Security Watch on the condition of anonymity.

The government's three most immediate security concerns are:
Its ever-simmering tensions with the densely populated Palestinian Gaza Strip and the Hamas political leadership at the country's southwestern flank border with Egypt
Its top-of-the-map frontier with southern Lebanon, where the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) fought a short and sharp but less-than-satisfactory war in summer 2006 with Iran-supplied Hizbollah militants
The Golan Heights frontline between Israeli and Syrian forces
"We see relentless terrorist attacks from Gaza against our citizens in southern Israel and a restocked Hizbollah [with Iranian-supplied Katyusha rockets] in southern Lebanon. Yes, you could argue the threats are rising," an Israeli government official in Jerusalem told ISN Security Watch in Brussels on 22 October.

While opinion is divided within Israel about the IDF's substandard performance during the so-called Second Lebanon War - bad doctrine, inexperienced officers and slashed budgets for reserve-unit training are three explanations proffered - IDF military commanders on the ground have no doubt about what needs doing the next time.
"Equipment and capability were not the issues [during the war with Hizbollah]," a local IDR infantry commander told ISN Security Watch in Brussels on 23 October, pointing a finger toward villages visible across the border into southern Lebanon.
"We knew exactly where the [enemy's] missiles were: we had the ability to identify, target and respond to them quickly, but we didn't do this like we should have," he said, referring to Hizbollah missiles fired from special bunkers under private homes or from mobile launchers that immediately redeployed after firing on public buildings such as schools or mosques.
"No, we took the softer 'more correct' approach: issuing advance warnings to villagers, or forcing them away from target areas by using smoke or other techniques to minimize civilian deaths. Well, we saw the results of that policy. [Civilian casualties in Israel and a public relations victory for Hizbollah]. That won't be the same the next time. The gloves come off if there's another conflict with Hizbollah."
Further east, Israeli security experts refer to quiet but increasing tension behind the Golan Heights, the Israeli-controlled territory seized from Syria 40 years ago.
"Syria is buying sophisticated weapons and equipping large units of soldiers with anti-tank missiles and the means to carry out guerrilla warfare," a government security analyst in Tel Aviv told ISN Security Watch.
"They've purchased thousands of anti-tank missiles from Russia in the last year, for example, and they're looking to acquire the ability to build long-range missiles in Syria. The overall combat goal is asymmetric, with Syria using Hizbollah [in southern Lebanon] as a first line to divert Israeli soldiers prior to a move against the Golan Heights. They are not ready yet, as we think it will take another year or so."
"Meanwhile," the analyst said, "we are hearing strange rhetoric coming from Damascus about the Golan. There have been troop movements on their part, and they see our training maneuvers [on the Heights]. We think they've put short-range rockets near their border with Israel and are building farms in the area, [under the assumption that] it would make it more difficult for us to take action against them."
Further south at Gaza tensions are also rising among Israeli security and military circles due to the near-daily attacks by Hamas and other militant groups inside the enclave against Israel's adjacent territory.
These come mainly in the form of handcrafted Qassam rockets, simple weapons fashioned from metal pipes and a homemade explosive mixture. The latest version, however, has a range of up to 20 kilometers. Though their wobbly trajectory is unguided, each one means that Israeli populations within range have less than 30 seconds to seek shelter. Ten were launched on 23 October, for example, though the daily average has been three since the IDF withdrew from the Gaza in 2005.
While the Qassams are a minor weapon and deaths have been few, their mental impact on local populations has been great, according to officials.
"Imagine growing up under those conditions," an Israeli diplomat in Jerusalem told ISN Security Watch. "There's a whole generation of young school children down there with serious psychological problems. The rocket attacks are in the news nearly every day and when one is coming down on their village they have to run for their lives."
Due to the higher-than-usual number of Qassam attacks in late October, the government clamped down on Gaza by selectively cutting electricity and fuel supplies, though hospitals and other urgent services were not targeted. Such commercial pressure is not enough, argued one expert.
"The time is growing near where we'll have to have a ground operation against Gaza," said one former high-ranking Israeli defense official. "In my view, this should have been done a year ago as soon as it was apparent that the territory was being used as a regular launching pad. IDF armed forces should have gone in and cleared the area. They did this in the West Bank and the terrorism [from there] has stopped."

Better defense
Some officials still in government tacitly agree. "We know where the launch areas are in Gaza - just beyond the no-man's land that separates their territory from ours," an Israeli security policy official told ISN Security Watch in Tel Aviv. "There is a strong rationale for moving the tanks and troops back into the strip to clear out those areas and keep it clean."
Israel's other military option is to rely on better defenses, which it is also trying to do. The Defence Ministry's co-called Iron Dome project calls for deployment of mobile air defense systems within two years capable of instantly detecting and countering short and medium-range rockets by launching an interceptor.
Israel's state-owned defense company, Rafael Ltd, is developing the system, though some experts are doubtful whether such spot-on capability can be fully achieved by then.Rafael is under heavy pressure to deliver a foolproof system, however, due to fears that Hamas and other groups within Gaza will get their hands on weapons more powerful and deadly than handmade rockets such as advanced-design Katyushas with their 50-70 km range.
Hizbollah has carried out repeated attempts to smuggle the rockets into Gaza via underground tunnels along the Strip's border with Egypt, according to Israeli officials - a reality that swings the threat-factor compass around to the main danger they see on the distant horizon: Iran.
"Those [in the international community] who say Iran is a responsible actor are wrong," an Israeli diplomat told ISN Security Watch. "Iran has not been a responsible player in the past, so why should it be now?"
Referring to Tehran's nuclear ambitions and its effort to master the so-called cascaded centrifuge enrichment process for producing bomb-grade U-235, the diplomat said "the worst-case scenario would be for Iran to master this technique by mid-2008 to produce low-level enriched uranium and then another two to three years of keeping its centrifuges running to produce highly enriched uranium. At that point it's a problem of stability for everyone, and not just Israel. Having Iran go nuclear will change the whole international scene."

http://www.isn.ethz.ch/news/sw/details.cfm?id=18305

Funding not renewed for Iron Dome system

By Yuval Azoulay , August 18, 2007

Lack of a consistent funding plan may leave the home front open to rocket and missile threats from neighboring countries, defense industry officials told Haaretz yesterday.

Moreover, officials said the Defense Ministry has not allocated funds for Israel's primary missile-interception system for 2008.

The Defense Ministry, however, said the lack of such a funding plan will not impede development.

The officials said they were concerned about the absence of a regular government funding plan for the Iron Dome missile-interception project. They warned that inadequate and short-sighted budgeting may cause contractors to be unable to meet the government's deadline 20 months from now for deploying anti-ballistic rocket systems near population centers.

The sources estimate that the budget for Iron Dome, Israel's short-range, rocket-based interception system, will run out by the end of 2007. But last week, officials at Rafael - the national authority for the development of weapons and military technology - told Haaretz the system could be made operational within 18 months.

The sources say the company chosen to develop the Iron Dome's radar system, Israel Aerospace Industries, never received a proper order for work on the system. The radar has not yet been fitted to Iron Dome's requirements.

Former defense minister Amir Peretz allocated several dozen million shekels several months ago to Rafael to develop the system. A senior official in the defense industry told Haaretz that the Iron Dome project "is advancing at a very slow pace, which contradicts the cabinet's resolutions on quickly setting up active defenses for towns and cities near the Gaza Strip and the border with Lebanon that have in past years come under repeated rocket attacks."

The official said the missile and rocket interception system should get precedence over other projects until completion.

"The system should be declared a national project, with the multi-annual budgetary plan that comes with such a move," the official said. Last Week, Haaretz reported that Defense Minister Ehud Barak wants the existence of an operational Iron Dome system to be a prerequisite for an Israeli pullout from the West Bank.

The official said funding must come from the government because none of the defense industry's companies can afford to develop a $100 million system such as Iron Dome.

"The defense industries need money to make headway. But currently, there isn't even a dedicated administrational body for handling development and to regularly allocate budgets and sub-budgets," the official said.

The Defense Ministry argued that in the past, defense projects have been successfully brought to completion without forming a dedicated administration.

"Iron Dome does not have a dedicated administration, but the project is being properly handled by the Defense Ministry's Administration for the Development of Weapons and the Technology Industry. The administration staff is engaged in daily and constant contact with Iron's Dome developer Rafael."

Defense Ministry officials said the issue of a regular funding plan for Iron Dome may be addressed in the general-staff forum on the defense budget scheduled for next week. "The ministry is currently discussing how to implement the defense budget for 2008," one said.

Rafael's public relations department said they "expect to sign a multi-annual development plan in the near future." Elta Systems, a subsidiary of Israel Aerospace Industries, declined to comment.

The Iron Dome system is meant to use the Israel Defense Forces' early warning radar system to identify short-range missiles and rockets in flight. In addition to Qassam rockets, Iron Dome is meant to protect against Hezbollah and Syria's Katyusha rockets.

Before going ahead with Rafael's Iron Dome, the Defense Ministry reviewed 13 other suggestions. Some of the proposed systems were rejected because their development process would be too long for the defense establishment's needs.

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/894486.html

Centurion Air Defense for Israel
July 31, 2008:

Israel is desperate to get some kind of anti-missile system in place to protect against rockets being fired out of Gaza by Hamas. Right now, a top candidate is the U.S. land mobile version of the Phalanx anti-ship-missile weapon. This system, called "Centurion" was originally developed four years ago, as "C-RAM". That's why the Israelis want it now, because similar systems developed in Israel will take several years to perfect, and angry voters will not give politicians that much time. Centurion is ready now.

Centurion is basically the Phalanx naval gun system with new software that enables it to take data from its own, and other, radar systems, and shoot down just about any kind of artillery shell or rocket within range (about 2,000 meters). It uses high explosive 20mm shells, that detonate near the target, spraying it with fragments. By the time these fragments reach the ground, they are generally too small and slow to injure anyone. At least that's been the experience in Iraq.

The original Phalanx used 20mm depleted uranium shells, to slice through incoming missiles. Phalanx fires shells at the rate of 75 per second. Another advantage of Centurion, is that it makes a distinctive noise when firing, warning people nearby that a mortar or rocket attack is underway, giving people an opportunity to duck inside if they are out and about.

The first C-RAM/Centurion was sent to Iraq in late 2006, to protect the Green Zone (the large area in Baghdad turned into an American base). It was found that C-RAM could knock down 70-80 percent of the rockets and mortar shells fired within range of its cannon. In the last two years, Centurion systems in Iraq have intercepted over a hundred rockets or mortar shells aimed at the Green Zone. Not bad, since it only took about a year to develop C-RAM. A Mobile Centurion system, which can cover an area about four kilometers wide, costs $15 million. The manufacturer will be turning out four a month.

The Israelis are also intrigued with a version of Centurion that uses a laser, in place of the 20mm cannon. This solid state laser has less range (about a thousand meters) than the 20mm cannon, but can take down more targets in a short time. Israel has been observed testing the laser itself along the Gaza security fence, to detonate explosives Hamas has planted on their side of the fence, to be used against Israeli troops who periodically enter to kill or capture terrorist leaders.

The short range of the laser Centurion is not a problem, because there are only a few places (small towns) in southern Israel that need to be protected from most Hamas rockets.

Ref:
strategypage.com/htmw/htada/articles/20080731.aspx

Iron Dome Air Defense System

Read the article:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Dome


Videos:
Israel's Iron Dome
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t6ipf0RXGA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxEKjXXOnzI

Iron Dome missile shield test
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4PXMaGfqOk

Iron Dome To Offer Residents Living In Gaza Periphery Commun
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HpFCFRAW_s

Israel's Iron Dome interceptor
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ubi9GF93jAs

When I think of the Iron Dome, I think of the home shelters that's mandatory for every new development. If the Iron Dome had to defend against every shot fired towards Singapore, it would be cost prohibitive, but if it only needed to took care of those missiles which were going to impact critical military installations or vital civilian infrastructure, then it might be cost effective enough for deployment.

I was wondering how it is going to handle an artillery salvo.

from wiki. looks like you can programme which are the areas that critical for defense and which arent...but in SG's case, given our super densly populated nature, I'm guessing we'll end up using up a lot of missiles...

however if we see pre-emptive strike to gain strategic depth, then this system would still make sense. this would probably be helpful in beating off insurgent-based qassam fire emerging from captured territories or into the newly defined borders.