Security

Israel's Anti-Rocket Defenses Still Taking Shape

As Israel continues its aerial bombardment of Gaza, Hamas militants have unleashed a barrage of Qassam rockets against towns in southern Israel. Over the weekend, two rockets hit the port city of Ashdod, 23 miles north of Gaza. While casualties have been relatively light, the U.K. Independent described these attacks as "the deepest missile penetration […]

Qassam_610 As Israel continues its aerial bombardment of Gaza, Hamas militants have unleashed a barrage of Qassam rockets against towns in southern Israel. Over the weekend, two rockets hit the port city of Ashdod, 23 miles north of Gaza. While casualties have been relatively light, the U.K. Independent described these attacks as "the deepest missile penetration yet by Hamas."

DANGER ROOM readers should by now be familiar with Israel's efforts to build effective defenses to counter the Qassam. The Israeli government has fast-tracked a domestically-built system called Iron Dome that was tested earlier this year. Iron Dome is designed to launch small kinetic interceptors that can take down short-range threats like Qassam and Katyusha rockets or 155mm artillery shells. Deployment -- previously scheduled for next year -- is now scheduled for 2010, with anti-rocket units to be stationed in northern and southern Israel.

While the Israeli government has backed Iron Dome, the influential Ha'aretz newspaper has lobbied intensely for a laser-based system called Skyguard that it insists is better technology. But as Sharon noted earlier this year, Skyguard, which started out with Israeli cooperation as the Tactical High Energy Laser (THEL)/Nautilus, is essentially a Northrop Grumman marketing campaign, because it doesn't yet have a military customer.

Ha'aretz, nonetheless, has continued to bang the drum against Iron Dome. Earlier this month, Reuven Pedatzur lambasted the government in the paper for continuing to invest in the Israeli-made system.

*A Qassam rocket from Beit Hanun takes around 13 seconds to reach Sderot, while the preparations to send an Iron Dome missile to intercept it take at least 15 seconds. *

When what was obvious all along became clear to the prime minister and his cabinet, they decided to provide protection for 6,000 housing units in communities less than 4.5 kilometers from the Gaza Strip. They thus tacked on another NIS 700 million or so to the huge investments in developing defense systems.

Pedatzur noted that the U.S. military has already fielded a counter-rocket and mortar system that can intercept rockets and mortars. That system -- called Centurion -- currently protects U.S. bases in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Centurion is built around the Phalanx Close-in Weapon System (that's CIWS, or "sea-whiz"), a radar-controlled 20mm Gatling gun originally designed as a last line of defense against anti-ship missiles. But Raytheon has also been working on a laser system that would be attached to the Phalanx gun mount. The U.S. Army is also moving forward with plans to mount a laser cannon on a 35-ton-plus truck; it handed a contract to Boeing in July to continue development of the laser weapon.

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