Israel Matzav

Israel plans to destroy Iran's missiles on the ground?

Take this with a grain of salt, because the source is the Sunday Times of London's not always reliable Uzi Mahnaimi. This time Mahnaimi is claiming that Israel has stationed (or will station) Eitan/Heron drones in Azerbaijan. The drones will be used to destroy Iranian missiles on the ground as soon as their engines are fired using data from the x-band radar stationed in Israel under United States control (Hat Tip: Director Blue).

According to the report Sunday, an American-made X-band radar system deployed at the Nevatim airbase in the Negev “can detect an Iranian missile on its launchpad 1,000 miles to the northeast,” giving Israel up to 13 minutes of warning.

The report quoted an Israeli military source as saying “We’ll try to ‘kill’ them at the booster stage — the moment their engines are ignited.”

Reportedly, such a preemptive strike would be carried out with American Hellfire missiles, delivered by Eitan drones — also known as Herons — based in Azerbaijan.

“If that happens, and it isn’t as easy as it sounds, then the remaining missiles will be finished off by our Air Defense Command,” a “well-informed Israeli source” was quoted as saying.

Let's assume for a minute that this story is true. Why would anyone tell Mahnaimi - and only Mahnaimi - about it?

The Eitan is certainly capable of doing this sort of thing, but if Israel has actually gotten Azerbaijan to allow us to use their bases (and this has come up before), why would anyone leak that fact to Mahnaimi? 

Sorry folks, but this one reminds me of Perrytales. It sounds cool, but there's really nothing behind it.

Labels: Azerbaijan, Eitan unmanned aerial system, Heron TP unmanned aerial system, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, x-band radar

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 10:09 PM