Labels: anti-missile systems, IDF, Iron Dome
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:36 PM
2 comments
"In the light of Israel's ... attacks on the residents of Gaza Strip ... The armed wing of Hamas movement has decided to respond to the Israeli aggression and we warn you against carrying out flights to Ben-Gurion airport, which will be one of our targets today because it also hosts a military air base," the statement said.
The terror group claimed earlier that it had already fired at least one rocket towards the airport on Friday but militant rockets, which are largely inaccurate, are not known to have landed in or around the airport, Israel's main international aerial gateway.
Several rockets from the Gaza Strip were fired toward the greater Tel Aviv area on Friday morning. The Iron Dome defense system intercepted three projectiles. No injuries were reported.
Incoming air traffic was halted from entering Israeli air space as sirens were sounded in the area, an airport spokesperson told The Jerusalem Post. Flight traffic was resumed as normal after the sirens subsided.
A spokesman for the Airports Authority said that a siren had sounded at Ben-Gurion and that all activity had stopped for about ten minutes, but that the siren was part of a general alert in the Tel Aviv area and not a direct threat to the airport.El Al planes are protected by the MUSIC-DIRCM anti-missile system and have been protected by that system or by Flight Guard since 2006. Other airlines decided that the anti-missile system for passenger planes is 'too expensive.' If God forbid there is a 'successful' attack, or even one that comes close, my guess is that we will likely see a lot of foreign airlines stop flying here for a while.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Ben Gurion Airport, El Al, Gaza, Hamas, Hamas rockets, MUSIC, Operation Protective Edge
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:48 PM
0 comments
“If we were able to build a regional defense capability in, say, Jordan, that capability could easily defend Israel, Jordan and even Egypt, if you so desired, adding one more layer to your multi-layered defense,” he told Israeli officials and experts gathered at the INSS think-tank.
Yair Ramati, head of the Israel Missile Defence Organisation, appeared open to the idea. “The policy of the (Israeli) Defence Ministry is always to cooperate with the countries of the region, including the countries cited,” Ramati said at the conference, in reference to Jordan and Egypt.Well, yeah. But why in Jordan? Wouldn't the best geographic location for such a missile shield be in southern Israel?
Labels: anti-missile systems, Arrow 3, David's sling, Egypt, Jordan, missile shield, US-Israel relationship
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:24 AM
0 comments
The Defense Ministry and Elbit Systems announced a successful completion of a trial program to test a missile defense system for commercial airlines.Let's see if any non-Israeli airlines are willing to pay the price to install it.
The C-Music system is designed to protect passenger aircraft from the threat of shoulder-launched missiles.
After detecting incoming missiles with an infrared censor, it fires a laser that disrupts the missile's navigation system and throws it off course, away from its intended target.
C-Music was chosen by the Transportation Ministry to protect Israeli airliners.
The Defense Ministry's Administration for the Development of Weapons and Technological Infrastructure, the Israel Airports Authority, and Elbit Systems jointly developed the system.
"The experiments, carried out in southern Israel, were some of the most complex and sophisticated ever carried out in Israel," the Defense Ministry said. "They simulated a range of threats that the C-Music system will have to deal with," it added.
"C-Music is considered the most advanced system of its kind in the world, and will provide ultimate defense to planes," the ministry continued. "It combined advanced detection and disruption technologies, and meets the stringent requirements of commercial flight."
Brig.-Gen. (res.) Ophir Shoham, head of the Administration, said hundreds of engineers took part in the development stage, and that the product is at the "end limit of detection and disruption technology."
Labels: anti-missile systems, Elbit Systems, MUSIC
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:18 PM
0 comments
Missile supportLet's go to the videotape.
In static position, the Sayyad-2 is mounted to a launcher station as the Russian made SA-2 missile. The basic design qualifies as semi-mobile, requiring several hours to set up or redeploy a battery. Each missile is carried by a semi-trailer towed by a Mercedes-Benz 2624 6x6 truck, and needs to be loaded onto a fixed launcher before firing. The loading usually takes about 5 minutes but this really depends on the training and experience of missile operators.
Missile
The Sayyad-2 is a two stage guided missile, with a large solid propellant booster stage fitted with four very large delta fins.The warhead of the Sayyad-2 weighs 200 kg and is a HE internally grooved fragmentation type with proximity, contact and command-type fuzing available. The Sayad 2 fligt at 3,600 km/h and has a range of 80 - 100 km and includes ECCM (Electronic Counter-Counter Measures) equipment.
Combat use
The Sayyad-2 missile, considering it's medium range can be apllied for targets, rather in low or high altitude. also it has capability for protecting the economic, political and social centers. Sayyad-2 is capable of destroying targets with low Radar Cross Section (RCS) at low and medium altitudes. The main mission of this missile, can be defined for destruction of bombers and reconnaissance aircraft.
Labels: anti-missile systems, German-Iranian trade, Iranian nuclear threat
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:04 PM
0 comments
The Defense Ministry announced Tuesday that Israel and the United States had successfully conducted a joint missile test in the Mediterranean Sea, a short time after Russia said it had detected a missile launch in the area.And what is an Anchor missile? The Anchor is part of Israel's Arrow missile defense system program.
The statement by the Defense Ministry said that the test of the Anchor missile took place at around 9:15 A.M. Israel time, which coincides with the report by Moscow that it had detected two ballistic missiles launched from the same region of the sea.
The Russian embassy in Damascus, however, was quick to affirm that there was no evidence of a missile strike on Syria.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Arrow 3
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:02 PM
1 comments
The test missile (the target) was launched from the U.S. Army’s Reagan Test Site, located on Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, a missile-testing center used by the U.S. military because of its isolated location.
The intercepting missile was launched from the Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, which serves the U.S. Air Force Space Command and also houses a missile-testing center.
The interception was supposed to have been carried out using missiles with “hit-to-kill” warheads. The last successful test of the system based on this type of warhead was held over four years ago, in December 2008.
...
The GMD system, which is supposed to intercept warheads in space, comprises part of the American defense plan for dealing with ballistic missiles. According to statistics from the American Missile Defense Agency, the intercepting missiles are based in Alaska and at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, and in 2010 the MDA had 30 such interceptors. The Department of Defense also stated that the purpose of the GMD system was to protect the country against the threat of attack by long-range ballistic missiles.You mean like from North Korea? That's great news... (Not)....
According to the report on the Bloomberg news website, the $34 billion system was in a testing hiatus after two tests in 2010 using a new, more sophisticated interceptor warhead (the CE-II) also failed. The recent test did not use the new warhead, which will be tested later this year. Of the 17 interception tests of the system, the interceptor succeeded in hitting the target in only eight cases.But let's cut the US defense budget some more. What could go wrong?
Labels: anti-missile systems
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:04 PM
0 comments
Co-developed by US firm Raytheon and Israeli company Rafael, David's Sling is a missile defense system designed to safeguard Israeli citizens from attack.
The Sling is capable of intercepting incoming rockets more than 160 kilometers away.
Until now all that's been seen of it is a brief video handout of a secret desert test last November.
But this week Yossi Horowitz, business development director at Rafael, showed off one of the missiles at the Paris Air Show.
Also known as the Stunner, the missile is part of a three-tier system. It will be used as a bridge between the existing Iron Dome system, which intercepts short-range rockets, and the Arrow, targeting ballistic missiles.Hmmm.
Labels: anti-missile systems, David's sling, Iron Dome
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:08 PM
1 comments
The MUSIC DIRCM system is to be placed on all EL Al, Arkia and Israir planes that travel through high-risk areas susceptible to shoulder-fired missile threats.If the 'Palestinians' ever - God forbid - get their reichlet, every take-off and landing from Ben Gurion would become high risk.
Labels: anti-missile systems, El Al, Elbit Systems
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:23 PM
0 comments
The Obama administration had promised to build Israel a state-of-the-art facility to house a new ballistic-missile defense system, the Arrow 3. As with all Defense Department projects, detailed specifications were made public so that contractors could bid on the $25 million project. The specifications included more than 1,000 pages of details on the facility, ranging from the heating and cooling systems to the thickness of the walls.
"If an enemy of Israel wanted to launch an attack against a facility, this would give him an easy how-to guide. This type of information is closely guarded and its release can jeopardize the entire facility," said an Israeli military official who commented on the publication of the proposal but declined to be named because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the facility. He declined to say whether plans for the facility have been altered as a result of the disclosure.
"This is more than worrying, it is shocking," he said.
Pentagon spokesman Lt. Col. Wesley Miller said he couldn’t comment on the specifics of the Arrow 3 base, but he said the United States routinely published the details of its construction plans on a federal business opportunities website so that contractors could estimate the costs of jobs. He said such postings often might be revised after contracts were approved.
Israeli officials appear to have been well aware of the danger of outsourcing building projects to the United States. In an interview with the Reuters news agency in March, Lt. Col. Peleg Zeevi, the head of the bidding process at Israel’s Defense Ministry, justified Israel’s long history of relying on the United States to help build military installations by saying that Israel needed "a player that has the knowledge, ability and experience."
"We are aware of the security issues that arise in deals with foreign firms, but because we want real competition and expertise, we will create conditions that will allow and encourage their participation," Zeevi said.
It appears, however, that Israeli officials were caught by surprise that details of the facility at Tel Shahar, classified so top secret that Israel’s military won’t officially confirm its location between Jerusalem and Ashdod, would be made so public.If this is the way the US does public tenders, and if Israel understood that and did not want these details disclosed, why didn't it arrange to approach a small number of trusted US defense contractors privately, with US government approval, to solicit bids without putting these kinds of details into the public domain? Or is the story here that Israel thought that's what it was doing or wanted to do and that the Obama administration thwarted those efforts? If that's the case, it's a serious breach, but that's not what the story appears to be saying....
Labels: anti-missile systems, Arrow 3, Iranian nuclear threat, military cooperation
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 1:47 PM
0 comments
Labels: anti-missile systems, David's sling, Elbit Systems, IDF, Rafael
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 11:25 AM
0 comments
A study by top scientists and military experts working for the National Research Council has concluded that the manner in which the United States' missile defenses are structured makes the US vulnerable to a missile attack by Iran. In a report, the panel suggested that President Obama shift course by expanding a system he inherited from President George W. Bush and by setting aside the final part of an antimissile strategy he unveiled in 2009. In so doing, the panel said, the president could set up the nation’s defenses to better defeat the kinds of long-range missiles that Iran may be developing.You know, if the US would go in and take out Iran's nuclear program, no one would have to worry about Iran anymore.
It is the first time that the research council, an arm of the National Academy of Sciences, has weighed in on the nation’s overall plans for defeating missile attacks.
Chartered by Congress to give scientific and technical advice to the government, the council is considered to be the nation’s preeminent group of scientists. The 16-person panel consists of scientists, engineers and weapons experts from universities, research groups and national laboratories, including one in Livermore, Calif., that deals with nuclear arms.
Philip E. Coyle III, a former national security official in the Obama White House and a former director of weapons testing at the Pentagon, said the panel’s report exposed a system that should be rebuilt from top to bottom, adding that the antimissile complex was geared toward “producing and fielding hardware” rather than actually devising ways to deflect enemy attacks.
The Pentagon wrote off the report as pedestrian.
...
The assessment is a major blow to Mr. Obama’s strategy of playing down the long-range defenses he inherited from Mr. Bush and focusing instead on defenses in Europe against shorter-range Iranian missiles. He articulated the shift in September 2009, calling the envisioned system “stronger, smarter and swifter.”
But the report, released Tuesday, faulted the results. It said the domestic defenses in place could probably handle crude missiles fired from North Korea, but nothing more sophisticated. It called the current generation of antimissile arms “fragile” and full of “shortcomings that limit their effectiveness against even modestly improved threats.”
Labels: anti-missile systems, Barack Hussein Obama, Iran
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:16 PM
0 comments
Boeing wants to market the Arrow 3 anti-ballistic missile shield that it has been developing with Israel since 1988 to third countries (Hat Tip: Sunlight; the picture is an Arrow 2). "As we prove out that technology, and show that it's not only affordable but effective, we think there will be additional global market opportunities for that capability," Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive of Boeing's defense, space and security arm, told Reuters.I suspect that the Israeli government is going to balk. Do we really want this kind of technology to fall into enemy hands? Didn't we learn our lesson with Turkey?
Boeing thinks that potential markets may include India, Singapore and South Korea, a company official said in a followup telephone conversation.
The United States and Israel have been jointly developing Arrow since 1988. Boeing's counterpart on the project is state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries.
Arrow 3, the system's highest-altitude component, which operates outside the atmosphere, is expected to be deployed by 2014, according to the U.S. Congressional Research Service.
The capabilities to be demonstrated in the coming test include searching further and higher for missiles of the type being designed and tested by Iran. No intercept of a simulated enemy design is scheduled in the upcoming test.
Labels: anti-missile systems, arms sales
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 2:31 PM
1 comments
The Pentagon has confirmed an earlier report that it is reducing its presence at a joint exercise with Israel due to take place in October, but it is denying that reduction has anything to do with mistrust of Israel over Iran. Responding to the report, the defense source said, “All of the commentary on this has been wrong. There is no great significance. Nothing has changed.”The US continues to repeat the meme that 'defense cooperation between the United States and Israel has never been better' and Israeli officials continue to try to downplay differences out of fear that President Obama will be reelected. What could go wrong?
The source stressed that the drill is still the largest held by the US and Israel to date, even with the smaller American force.
“Defense cooperation between Israel and the US has never been better,” the source added.
...
“Austere Challenge 12 remains the largest-ever ballistic missile defense exercise between our nations and a significant increase from the previous event in 2009,” said US Air Force Lt.-Col. Jack Miller, a Pentagon spokesman.
“The exercise has not changed in scope and will include the same types of systems as planned. All deployed systems will be fully operational with associated operators,” Miller said.
Miller said US-Israeli ties were strong and Austere Challenge “is a tangible sign of our mutual trust.”
A US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, declined to say how many US personnel would be involved in the exercise but said the reported figures were wrong and the change in scale was far smaller than indicated.
An Israeli defense official briefed on the exercise told Reuters the drill “will be held on a similar scale as when it was last held, two years ago.”
The Israeli official said the size of the exercise was initially slated to be larger but added that “the changes are within the framework of the drill’s requirements and nothing more.”
“These things are planned over a long time and changes are not uncommon,” the official said.
Miller said the exercise was initially planned for May but earlier this year, Israeli defense officials approached the US about shifting the date until late autumn.
“When the exercise was moved, the United States notified Israel that due to concurrent operations, the United States would provide a smaller number of personnel and equipment than originally planned.
Israel reiterated to postpone until late fall,” Miller said.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012, Iranian nuclear threat, Israeli attack on Iran, US-Israel relationship
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 9:23 AM
0 comments
The IDF is considering installing missile interceptors on Israeli gas rigs in the Mediterranean. The interceptors are meant to defend against Hezbullah, although I wonder whether it might be more likely that the rigs will need to be defended against Turkey. Israel’s concern is that Hezbollah will try to attack the platforms with anti-ship missiles or explosives-laden vessels.Like I said, I am as concerned about Turkey as I am about Hezbullah.
The navy is particularly concerned about Syria’s recent purchase of the Russian Yakhont anti-ship missile, which could be transferred to Hezbollah and used to target the gas rigs. Syria already tested the Yakhont in recent maneuvers. The weapon is said to be a sophisticated missile with a range of about 300 km.
Last February, the navy seized an Iranian arms ship whose cargo, Israel said, was destined for Islamic Jihad. The vessel was carrying six Iranian Nasr-1 radarguided anti-ship missiles.
The navy has yet to decide which type of missile defense system it would deploy on the gas rigs, but the two options under consideration are David’s Sling, which Israel is developing for use against medium-range rockets and cruise missiles, as well as the Barak-8, which protects large navy vessels against anti-ship missiles.
The navy has already increased its patrols in the Mediterranean and is also using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to increase the range of its surveillance. It currently operates Israel Aerospace Industries’s Heron UAV, which comes with a special electro-optic payload for maritime operations.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Hezbullah, oil and gas exploration, Turkey
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 4:59 PM
2 comments
Congressional sources have told the Jerusalem Post that Congress is more than willing to make up President Obama's cuts in spending for Israel's missile defense program - and then some. The cut to the US-Israel cooperative programs has provoked criticism from some quarters.And of course, President Obama will then turn around and tell us how 'his' aid to Israel for missile defense shows how Israel and the US are cooperating 'better than ever' under his administration. What could go wrong?
“For an administration that tried to claim that it’s the best for Israel’s security, cutting critical funds for missile defense at a time when the threat from Iran has never been greater is extremely dangerous, worrisome and reckless,” said Matt Brooks, executive director of the Republican Jewish Coalition.
But Democrats on Capitol Hill defended the reduced missile defense funding as part of the Obama administration’s effort to rein in overall spending by the Pentagon, whose budget would be slashed by $487 billion across 10 years under Obama’s plan.
“It has nothing to do with the Israeli missile defense program and everything to do with curbing the defense budget in every way possible,” said one aide to a Democratic member on the House defense appropriations subcommittee.
He said Congress would be increasing the missile defense aid once it reviews the budget and determines its own funding levels. The administration budget serves as a blueprint, but it is Congress’s version that is voted on and signed into law.
“Funding for US-Israel missile defense will continue to rise despite the budget request,” he said.
Though the administration’s request for missile defense monies has dropped somewhat in recent years – from $121.7m. in 2011 to $106.1m. in 2012 to 2013’s $99.8m. – during each of those cycles, Congress has consistently increased the final allocation.
The aide predicted the 2013 figure would be in the neighborhood of the record $235.6m. slated for 2012, meaning Congress would be adding at least $100 million to the current figure.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Arrow 2, Barack Hussein Obama, David's sling, US foreign aid
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 7:53 AM
0 comments
According to 'Pentagon sources' cited by Jeffrey Goldberg, it was Israel's Defense Minister, Ehud Barak, and not the United States, that asked for the postponement of Operation Austere Challenge 12, the joint anti-missile exercise that was to have taken place in Israel in April (Hat Tip: Memeorandum). Despite claims made in the Israeli press that the Obama Administration, worried about provoking Iran, initiated a postponement of a massive joint Israeli-U.S. missile defense exercise scheduled to begin later this month, Pentagon officials say it was the Israeli defense minister, Ehud Barak, who asked his counterpart, Leon Panetta, for the postponement. The claim that the exercise, dubbed "Austere Challenge 12," was scrubbed from the calendar because the Obama Administration feared provoking the Iranian regime is "baseless," one senior Pentagon official told me just a few minutes ago, in a telephone call initiated by a group of senior defense officials.As of now, there has been no comment from Israel.
One of the senior defense officials told me this: "Minister Barak called Secretary Panetta and asked if we could take the exercise off the calendar. The Israelis were concerned that they did not have the resources in place to carry it out effectively." The exercise, which was to begin with a live-fire drill, would have involved several thousand Israelis as well as several thousand American military personnel, and Barak told Panetta, according to these officials, that Israel could not pull together the resources necessary to stage the exercise successfully. "Our military is much bigger than theirs and this exercise was going to consume a much larger portion of their resources," the official said.
Panetta, according to these Pentagon sources, was concerned that the Iranians would interpret the scrubbing of the exercise, well, the way it's currently being interpreted, as a sign of American wavering in the face of Iranian threats. He told Barak that he would not agree to a cancellation, as Barak was suggesting, but only a postponement. "Panetta's initial reaction was, 'I don't want to take this off the calendar.' He said it would send the wrong signal." After multiple conversations, Panetta and Barak agreed to postpone Austere Challenge 12 until fall.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Ehud Barak, training exercise
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 12:43 AM
3 comments
Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Tuesday, January 17.1) Ban Ki Moon: Hezbollah must disarm, Syria must stop killing, Israel must withdraw from villageI think Obama ought to take the Dale Carnegie course. One of the things we learned there was "expect ingratitude and you will never be disappointed." Heh.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki Moon has been in Lebanon for among other things, a conference on "Reform and Transitions to Democracy" sponsored by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia. First he was reported to have called on Hezbollah to disarm. That demand was met with scorn.Hezbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah dismissed on Saturday a United Nations call for his movement to disarm, saying it was determined to maintain a military capacity to defend Lebanon.In more recent remarks he called on Syria to stop killing its citizens:
"I affirm today, firmly, decisively and with the greatest conviction ... the choice of armed resistance," Nasrallah said. "These weapons, along with the Lebanese people and army, are the only guarantee of Lebanon's protection."
...
"Your concern, Secretary-General, reassures us and pleases us. What matters to us is that you are worried, and that America ... and Israel are worried with you," he said in a televised speech marking a Shiite holy day.“Today, I say again to President [Bashar] Assad of Syria. Stop the violence. Stop killing your people. The path of repression is a dead end,” Ban said during a conference on transition and democracy in the Arab world in Beirut Sunday.and on Israel to withdraw from Ghajar
The United Nations estimates that over 5,000 people have so far died in Assad’s ten-month crackdown on anti-democracy protesters.
...
“The lessons of the past year are eloquent and clear: The winds of change will not cease to blow. The flame ignited in Tunisia will not be dimmed,” he said.In his speech Sunday Ban said “The Israeli occupation of Arab and Palestinian territories must end.”Of course Syria won't heed Ban. And Hezbollah openly mocked. Israel likely won't either. First of all the "occupation" such as it is something that can only end through negotiations. Putting the onus on Israel, is typical for a UN functionary, but it's still wrong.
In an interview with The Daily Star Saturday Ban said it was “regrettable” that the issue of the Israeli-occupied northern Lebanese village of Ghajar had not yet been resolved.
“UNIFIL [United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon] has presented its plan of action to secure the security there after the withdrawal of Israeli Defense Forces from the northern village of Ghajar. Unfortunately we have not received any response from the Israeli government,” he said.
The specific case of Ghajar is interesting. Ghajar is a town on the Golan Heights. Over the years its area has grown and it has crossed the international border into Lebanon. According to resolution 1701 ending the 2006 war with Hezbollah, Israel is to withdraw from Lebanese territory, all that's left now is the northern part of Ghajar.
According to Isabel Kershner of the New York Times writing in early 2010:But with a new government in Beirut and a desire to deny Hezbollah any justification for attacking Israel on grounds that it is occupying Lebanese territory, interested parties, the United States among them, want to see Ghajar removed from a long list of grievances. Israel also wants to show a willingness to complete its withdrawal from Lebanon in compliance with United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended the 2006 war.(The idea that withdrawing from Ghajar would remove a grievance from a long list, is precious. Israel withdrew from southern Lebanon in 2000 and the consequent build up of Hezbollah is precisely what led to the 2006 war. When the other side wants to be aggrieved, there is no way appease it.)
As a temporary solution, Unifil, the United Nations peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, has proposed taking control of the village’s northern part.
Later in the year, Israel was ready to withdraw form the northern part of the city. The residents, though, were not in favor of having their city divided.
In the end Israel did not withdraw from northern Ghajar, citing Hezbollah's continued violations of 1701.
Secretary General Ban underlined the uselessness of the UN by demanding compliance of Syria and Hezbollah.
He emphasized that uselessness by specifically demanding an Israeli withdrawal from Ghajar when it is clear that that the only reason Israeli didn't withdraw, was the continued flouting of SC Resolution 1701 by Hezbollah.
Thanks to Elder of Ziyon and Israel Matzav, who were sources.
2) Whither Austere Challenge 12?
In recent days it's been reported that a scheduled joint military exercise between Israel and the United States has been canceled. The New York Times reports:Speaking Monday on Israel Radio, Mr. Lieberman cited “diplomatic and regional reasons, the tensions and instability” as factors in delaying the exercise. The Israeli military said in a statement that the joint exercise, Austere Challenge 12, would take place during the second half of the year.AFP provided a general description of the point of Austere Challenge 12:
The exercises, involving thousands of American and Israeli soldiers, were designed to test various Israeli and American air defense systems against missiles and rockets from a range that would include Iran, The Associated Press reported.
The American defense secretary, Leon E. Panetta, said last month that the drill exemplified unprecedented levels of military cooperation between the two countries and that it was meant to back up Washington’s “unshakable” commitment to Israel’s security, The A.P. said."The exercise scenario involves notional, simulated events as well as some field training and is not in response to any real-world event," the military said in a written response to an AFP query.In addition to attributing the cancellation to "instability," Israel Hayom citing a report from Army Radio, gives the reason for the cancellation as budgetary.
"The US European Command and the Israel Defence Forces periodically conduct routine exercises in Israel. These exercises, which are part of a long-standing strategic partnership, are planned in advance and part of a routine training cycle designed to improve the interoperability of our defence systems."
Is there a hidden agenda here? Who knows? But people are speculating. Laura Rozen of Yahoo! tweeted:Heard 'nthr inter'g theory re: Isr request to delay mil exercise-Isr PM may not want Obama to have vivid demo of US/Isr mil coop b4 US elexI have no idea why that's interesting. If the exercises were to improve Israel's ability to defend itself against Iran, why would Netanyahu cancel them just to hurt Obama politically? Absent any supporting evidence, only someone who believes that Netanyahu's priority is to score cheap political points again Obama would believe this.
Press TV, a semi-official Iranian "news" agency cites DEBKAfile:An unnamed military source told DEBKAfile that the White House made the announcement urgently at an unusually early hour Washington time to underscore the Obama administration's total disassociation from any preparations to attack Iran. Washington also aimed to stress its position that if an attack took place, Israel alone would be accountable.This is all speculation based on unnamed sources and less. No doubt, official Iran is pleased to magnify any differences that exist between Israel and the United States.
The friction between Israel and US, came to the surface last week by the deep resentment aroused in Israel by Washington's harsh condemnation of the assassination last Wednesday, Jan. 11, of Iran's nuclear scientist Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan.
The report added that prior to the cancellation, the US had started building up its military presence around Iran by stationing nearly 15,000 troops in Kuwait and keeping two aircraft carriers in the region: The USS Carl Vinson, the USS John Stennis and their strike groups.
3) Stop me before I write again
Roger Cohen begs, Don't do it, Bibi. "It" in this case, is referring to striking at Iran's nuclear facilities.A U.S. ambassador in Europe was recently asked by an Israeli ambassador what could be done to improve the lousy relations between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Obama. He replied: “Every once in a while, say thank you.”I hate to burst the ambassador's (and Cohen's) bubble but Netanyahu has been remarkably cooperative despite getting rather spiteful treatment from President Obama. Jackson Diehl explained a few weeks ago Why Netanyahu can't 'get to the damn table.' Everything in Diehl's article is a matter of public record. It isn't even remarkable, excepts that there are so many who wish to believe the worst of Netanyahu, that they won't believe Diehl.
The American ambassador added a couple of other thoughts. “Maybe, once in a while, ask the president if there’s anything you can do for him. And above all stay out of our election-year politics.”
After railing about Netanyahu's supposed ingratitude towards Obama, Cohen writes:I would add a further piece of advice to Netanyahu if he cares about his dysfunctional relationship with Obama — and he should because Israelis know the United States matters and might be disinclined to re-elect a man who has poisoned relations with Washington. That advice is: Do not attack Iran this spring or summer.I'm not exactly sure why Israelis generally, or Netanyahu specifically, would listen to a man who was defending the Iranian regime in 2009, but my guess is that - based on the latest polls - Israeli's do not view Netanyahu as the man who is poisoning relations with the United States. Cohen gets to the crux of the issue here:Netanyahu has always portrayed himself as the man standing between Iran and a bomb. A hawk, he has a taste for the dramatic. Israel, in such issues, has already gone it alone once, when it bombed a Syrian nuclear facility in 2007. At this stage, the U.S. and Israeli triggers appear distinct — with Panetta saying “our red line to Iran is, do not develop a nuclear weapon” whereas the Israelis see irreversible nuclear capability as unacceptable even if a weapon is not being made. In that discrepancy lurks danger.Now note what Cohen does here. After attributing "hawkish" tendencies to Netanyahu, he switches gears to bring up the bombing the Syrian reactor in 2007. But Netanyahu wasn't the Prime Minister then, Olmert was. And it was hardly "dramatic," as the identity of the Israeli target wasn't positively identified for several weeks. (There was a lot of speculation immediately, but no concrete proof.) Still, what Cohen is acknowledging implicitly, is that Israel will act if it sees that it faces a threat, even if other countries, especially America, disagree.
Towards the end Cohen writes:In an election year, with U.S. intelligence convinced Iran is not yet building a bomb, Obama will not send oil prices soaring and the Muslim world into another bout of anti-American rage. A lot of his presidency has been precisely about extraction from war and easing of Islamic hostility.Yes Obama intends to end America's wars in the Islamic world. But to assert that anything he has done has ease "Islamic hostility" is ignorant.
Despite his posturing, I don't know if or when Israel will attack Iran any more than Cohen does. I believe that Israel will attack if it sees no other way to deal with the threat. It may come despite American objections. Netanyahu will attack if he sees it the best of bad choices, but he won't be doing it primarily to snub President Obama in an election year.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Ban Ki-Moon, Iranian nuclear threat, Middle East Media Sampler, Soccer Dad
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 5:42 PM
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Good morning and thank you all for sticking with me.I’m sure the Obama administration would characterize its political posture as one of concern that holding these exercises on schedule would be seen as provocative in an already unsettled situation. The unspoken premise is, of course, that demonstrating US-Israeli collaboration in missile defense and military operations is provocative.Read the whole thing.
And from the perspective of Tehran, and no doubt Damascus, it presumably is. Well-intentioned people can argue honestly over whether it is a good idea to let policy decisions be governed by what our opponents consider provocative. “Provocative” is always the flip side of “deterrent”; the question is whether, in a given situation, one thinks like a global leader determined to deter, or like a nation that hopes to avoid the need for exertion.
Regardless, it cannot be argued that the Obama posture is anything other than defensive. Equally defensive is the administration’s emphasis on supplying Gulf nations with air- and missile-defense systems. These systems are of obvious interest to Iran’s neighbors, but they cannot prevent Iran from launching attacks – of any kind. They are purely passive, entailing no preemption or active deterrence.
It has been a mistake at every turn to look for evidence of the conventional use of US power in the actions of the Obama administration. The operations in Libya demonstrated clearly that Team Obama is determined not to use US military power to secure transformative outcomes rapidly. Obama is prepared to let conflicts continue as long as they must in order that the outcomes be achieved by other means. His solicitude for missile defenses in the Gulf and in Israel is a signal that he expects to approach Iran on defense.
Our overall military posture in the Gulf simply reinforces that approach.
Labels: anti-missile systems, Barack Hussein Obama, Iranian nuclear threat
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:32 AM
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Now the US says that the joint missile drill with Israel will take place in late 2012. “We are going to be conducting the exercise in the second half of 2012,” explained Capt. John Ross, spokesman for the US European Command (EUCOM). “It is not unusual for such exercises to be postponed and leaders of both sides believe that the best participation of all units will be best achieved later in the year.”Israel Radio reports on Monday morning that the IDF and the US Army have issued an announcement that the drill has been postponed. It is believed here in Israel that the reason behind the postponement is a desire not to further antagonize Iran. But I have other explanations I will cite below.
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Initially scheduled for April and called "Austere Challenge," the drill was supposed to see the deployment of thousands of US troops and various sophisticated US missile defense systems in Israel.
The sides are currently in discussion about holding the drill towards the end of the year.
According to Ben-Yishai, the decision to delay the drill is also related to financial concerns. Washington has cut its defense budget for 2012 by $450 billion dollars – a move which is aimed at helping the US tackle its national debt, which has affected the country's credit rating.There's also another explanation: I believe that the drill will take place in mid-to-late October. It's still early enough not to be very deep into the rainy season or the winter and it's perfect timing for a certain reelection campaign that wants to claim that American relations with Israel are 'better than under any previous President.'
Labels: anti-missile systems, Barack Hussein Obama, Campaign 2012
posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 8:43 AM
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I am an Orthodox Jew - some would even call me 'ultra-Orthodox.' Born in Boston, I was a corporate and securities attorney in New York City for seven years before making aliya to Israel in 1991 (I don't look it but I really am that old :-). I have been happily married to the same woman for thirty-five years, and we have eight children (bli ayin hara) ranging in age from 13 to 33 years and nine grandchildren. Four of our children are married! Before I started blogging I was a heavy contributor on a number of email lists and ran an email list called the Matzav from 2000-2004. You can contact me at: IsraelMatzav at gmail dot com
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