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Sunday, January 17, 2016

A New Moment For Defensive Weapons

Assume for the moment that you are a terrorist who wants to launch missiles against the civilian population of a neighboring country.  Maybe that's too general a description.  Let's say it this way:  assume for the moment that you are a member of the terrorist group Hezbollah and you want to launch missiles against Israeli town.  What would your expectations be as to what would happen after the launch?

In the past, the launch of a missile would lead to either artillery counterstrikes or Israeli airstrikes against Hezbollah targets.  Usually those counterstrikes came within 24 hours.  Now, however, that all may be changing.

Israel is deploying a new weapon called the Romach missile which may change the dynamics of missile strikes by the terrorists in much the same way that the Israeli Iron Dome system did.  Iron Dome proved able to shoot down nearly every missile launched from Gaza during the last conflict if those missiles were headed towards a populated area.  The Romach missile, however, does more.  It may give the Israelis the ability to hit the very people launching the missiles in a matter of minutes.

The Romach is a missile with a range of something in the area of 50 km.  It is guided by a GPD system which allows the missile to hit a target within just a few feet.  Even better, the operating system for the missiles can have pre-programmed strike targets.  In other words, as the Israelis find locations of enemy weapons stores or launch sites, they can program those locations into the control system for the missiles.  Then, if the terrorists launch an attack on Israel, the response can be immediate.  Israeli systems can determine the launch site and, if it is one of those that has been pre-programmed into the system, the return fire could take off even before the incoming missile hits the ground.  If the launch site is not already programmed, then the Israelis can fir back at site which they have already located and programmed into the missiles.

It's going to be much more dangerous to be a terrorist launching missiles from now on.






 

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