Now it has to be tested in the field
The IDF has successfully tested in the laboratory a system for detecting underground terror tunnels. The system must now be field tested. The IDF hopes to
install it on the Gaza border within a year.
A system designed to detect infiltration tunnels proved successful in laboratory tests for the first time ever and is now being tested in the field, a senior IDF officer said Monday.
If the field test proves successful, the system can be deployed around the Gaza Strip within approximately one year, the officer added.
The system will cost from NIS 1.5 billlion to NIS 2.5 billion to deploy.
Arutz Sheva adds:
The senior officer said that the IDF had received about 700 offers for anti-tunnel systems, and chose two.
The senior officer also spoke about the Iron Dome system and
confirmed that the system worked well during Operation Protective Edge.
However, he warned, “we cannot rest on our laurels: in the next
campaign, the terrorists will try to improve the range of the missiles,
the altitude of their trajectory and the amount of missiles launched
each time. Therefore, the system must constantly update itself, and we
are operating accordingly.
The Trophy defense system that protects armored vehicles from
anti-tank missiles also worked efficiently in the war, the officer said.
Another 3 billion shekels are required to provide protection for all of
the vehicles. “Money was never the issue,” he stressed, “only providing
the proper means [for protection].”
Various media reports over the years have described possible
solutions as including sensors that would detect tunnels as they were
being dug, massive trench digging contraptions that could create a deep
protective trench around Gaza, and robots that could dig their way into
tunnels and blow them up.
Whatever we install around Gaza should also be installed around our northern border with Lebanon and probably the Syrian border as well. The borders with Jordan and Egypt seem like less of a priority right now.
Labels: IDF, Iron Dome, Israeli high tech, Operation Protective Edge, terror tunnels, Trophy system
Iran training 'Palestinians' in use of anti-tank missiles
Iran has trained a number of 'Palestinian' terrorists in the operation of sophisticated Russian-made anti-tank missiles. Presumably, the terrorists would use these missiles if, as IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said on Tuesday
may happen, the
IDF has to go back into Gaza again.
The IDF believes that Hamas and Islamic Jihad have obtained several hundred advanced Russian-made antitank missiles – such as the Kornet and the Fagot – which have a range of more than 4 kilometers and are capable of penetrating armored personnel carriers and some IDF tanks.
Terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip had a small number of these missiles ahead of Operation Cast Lead – Israel’s offensive against Hamas in 2009 – but only used them in a handful of known instances.
“They were not trained well then, and as a result, the missiles were not effective,” a senior IDF officer explained this week. “Since then, the groups have significantly increased the stockpile and have also sent specific terrorists to Iran for extensive training where they became anti-tank missile experts.”
The level of expertise was demonstrated earlier this year when Hamas fired a Kornet anti-tank missile at a school bus near Nahal Oz, which killed 16-year-old Daniel Viflic.
The missile was fired from a distance of close to 3 kilometers and the operator had to fire in between the Gaza security fence and electrical cables. “He also had to hit the bus, which was not easily seen on the road,” the officer said, explaining the complexities of the attack as a demonstration of the level of expertise in Gaza.
The Kornet (or Cornet) is
easy to operate.
This semi-automatic laser beam riding missile is effective at ranges of 100 – 5,500 m' in daytime and up to 3,500 m' at night. The missile utilizes a tandem shaped charge anti-tank warhead or a thermobaric (fuel-air explosive) charge, for anti-personnel and anti-material blast and incendiary effect. The manufacturer claims penetration of 1,200mm of steel armor or 4.5 meters of concrete. The NATO designation of the Kornet is AT-14.
A firing unit consisting of launcher, thermal sight and a single missile container weigh 65 kg and can be installed and ready for action in 3 minutes, operated by 3 men. Most often, the missile will be deployed on vehicular platforms, a modular design for such launcher can utilize a lightweight launcher or an integrated turret designed for a hummer sized vehicle, integrated with the thermal sight and four ready to fire missiles and five more in stowage. Other configurations include an automatic, remotely operated win-missile turret installed on the BMP-3 (16 missiles, of which 12 are stored in an autoloader) and BRTR-80 chasis (12 missiles, 8 in autoloader). The missile's launched is fitted with thermal imaging system, to facilitate effective operations under low visibility, day and night.
The IDF believes that Hamas has smuggled
hundreds of these missiles into Gaza in the last three years.
“The Gaza Strip is completely different today than what it was almost three years ago,” a senior defense official said. “The amounts of weaponry are significantly higher as well as the type of weaponry and its sophistication.”
Aren't you glad now that the Olmert-Barak-Livni government turned down the opportunity to wipe Hamas out three years ago so as not to disturb
Barack Hussein Obama's inauguration? A lot of goodwill that bought us....
Some of you may that Israel has the
Trophy system installed on its tanks and that Trophy can stop many anti-tank missiles. That's true, but as the article implies, Trophy is
not yet installed on all of the IDF's tanks. (I posted a video of Trophy in action
here).
In face of the threat, the IDF is moving forward with plans to install the Trophy active protection system on Merkava Mk 4 tanks that are in production ahead of their delivery to the 401st Armored Brigade. Two of the brigade’s battalions have already received the system and the remaining battalion will finish receiving it by the beginning of 2012.
The IDF has
known for a long time that the 'Palestinians' had these missiles. So why wasn't the system delivered to all battalions already? And why hasn't it been installed on older tanks (I doubt we're taking them out of commission). Will Hamas and Islamic Jihad cooperate by only shooting Kornets at tanks that have the Trophy system involved? (I suspect that the answer to my questions is that the IDF did not have the budget). What could go wrong?
Labels: Cornet anti-tank missile, Hamas, Hezbullah, Iran, Islamic Jihad, Trophy system
IDF upset over Chief of Staff disclosure
Earlier this week, I reported on an IDF exercise in which a live anti-tank missile was shot at an IDF tank using the Trophy system, with troops inside, to prove that the tank could withstand the hit.
The IDF brass is apparently upset with outgoing Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi's disclosing the exercise, because it implies (correctly) that the 'Palestinians' have the type of anti-tank missiles - Cornets - that necessitate the
special protection.
IDF Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi said Tuesday that Hamas had used a laser guided Cornet anti-tank missile against an IDF tank in Gaza at the beginning
of December.
Israel Television Channel Two News reported this evening that "the Southern
Command did not like Ashkenazi's revelation and thought that it exposed Israel's soft underbelly in Gaza."
The report did not indicate who this "soft underbelly" was being exposed to
given that the Gazans who shot the Cornet don't have to rely on the COS to
know that the Palestinians have the weapon.
Does this mean that the Southern Command is not happy that the Israeli pubic
now knows what Israel's enemies already know?
Hmmm.
Labels: Cornet anti-tank missile, Trophy system
Show-offs
The IDF showed off its Trophy tank defense system by
firing a live RPG at a Merkava 4 tank with IDF soldiers inside. I wish had video of this.
In an unusual military training exercise, an anti-tank missile was fired at a Merkava Mark 4 tank being operated by soldiers in order to test the Trophy (Meil Ruach) active tank defense system, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense System Ltd. and intended to intercept and destroy aerial threats. The experiment was carried out with kinetic missiles without warheads, which simulate the missile's path and do not pose a threat to soldiers. Commander of the Armored Corps' 401st Brigade. Col. Einav Shalev himself will take part in the exercise, sitting in the tank with Commander of the 9th Armored Battalion, Lt. Col. Itai Berin.
The Trophy, the fruit of a joint labor effort between Rafael, Elta and the American company General Dynamics, uses special radars and sensors to identify various threats directed at the tank such as anti-tank missiles, and launches a special explosive to neutralize them. This active defense system makes it possible to contend with dangers which are sometimes undetected by the crew inside the tank.
Recently, the system was used for the first time in a company training exercise of the 9th Armored Battalion. During the course of the exercise, the soldiers learned its response to environment's stimuli such as smoke emissions from other Merkava tanks and other heat factors, and got experience having it operate while driving.
"Both the battalion commander and I held our breath when the missile was shot during the demonstration," Col. Shalev said during an interview with Army Radio. He added that, "This is an excellent and reliable system tested in every situation, and we intend to provide soldiers entering the Gaza Strip with it and even those entering Lebanon if required." Lt. Col. Itai Berin, 9th Armored Battalion Commander was the commander during the exercise, added that "after a two month integration process, the battalion will be the first to take part in the demonstration on the tank."
Sounds awesome.
Read the whole thing.
Labels: Merkava 4, Trophy system
