19 JULY 2010: Not quite 6 weeks ago, between 7 and 9 June, an Israeli delegation attended a briefing given by the NATO Program Office for the Active Layered Theater Ballistic Missile Defense System (ALTBMDS) Operational Users Group, led by the United States, Germany, Italy, Poland, the U.K., France, Holland and Canada. The briefing brought the Israeli's up to speed on the current and future capabilities of the NATO ballistic missile defense system. At the same time the NATO side was briefed by Israeli Brigadier General (Ret.) Eitan Yariv on Israel's Ballistic Missile Defense (BMD) system.
Obviously, the two systems were immediately recognized to be mutually compatable and would provide an immediate increase in joint capabilities against hostile ballistic missile threats against Europe, Israel and forward deployed NATO forces in the Middle Eastern theater of operations (Operation Enduring Freedom). Without question the Islamic Republic of Iran, with its Shahab-3/4/5 family of ballistic missiles, is seen by all parties as the primary emergent threat. Syria and newly ballistic missile-armed Hezbollah in Lebanon are second tier emergent threats.
It is no big surprise, therefore, to see operational in Israel today a jointly-manned American and Israeli operations center featuring the ground-based center-piece of the NATO system, the AN/TPY-2 radar seen in the image above. Israel has not only integrated its defenses with the American systems in theater, but now has integrated with those of NATO on the European continent. Any launched ballistic missile threat within 1,900 miles of these allied territories will be rapidly identified, the specific launch point located and the incoming warhead destroyed. The effective range of this system is likely limited only by the overhead postion of the space-based element of the networked system and the location of most forward deployed elements of the actual interceptor missiles - most likely located outside of Europe in Israel, Kuwait and Afghanistan.
hey sean, a friend of mine asked me a question and i wanted to pass it on cuz i dont know the answer: what is the most reliable, fair and accurate internet news source that deals with whats going on in washington and around the world? without the liberal bias
ReplyDeletehartdawg,
ReplyDeleteActually there is none because they are all corporations whose bottom line is making a profit. Also, there's always a bias involved in any given media outlet.
If you want the best news out of Washington DC then I'd recommed Bill Gertz "The Gertz File" as it is unvarnished truth about what's going on inside the beltway.
When it comes to general news of the day - read truly Christian blogs and forums. I live rapture Forums.
Israeli news - I prefer Debka, INN and YNet.