Article

2007-03-30 Syria-Lebanon-Iran

Israel: 'Arrow can fully protect against Iran'

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Posted by Anonymoose 2007-03-30 00:11|| || Front Page|| [7 views since 2007-05-07] Top

#1 Smells like they want to reassure their people that they can handle the Iranian missile threat.

I hope we have lots of these guarding the Green Zone.

Posted by Mike N. 2007-03-30 00:29|| 2007-03-30 00:29|| Front Page Top

#2 Iran and Syria, Herzog said, were investing unprecedented amounts of money in long-range ballistic missile capabilities - with the help of North Korea - and had all but given up building modern air forces.

Sounds like military suicide to me. Kind of like trying to use a deer rifle for home protection. This sort of crap probably makes Israel pretty jumpy, given that their enemies are focused only upon killing them and not even on defending their own nations. We really need to instigate regime change throughout the entire MME (Muslim Middle East). There's just no way to trust any of these Arab and Persian loonies.

Posted by Zenster">Zenster 2007-03-30 01:01|| 2007-03-30 01:01|| Front Page Top

#3 I have suspected for some time that at least some of Israel's Arrows have nuclear warheads. Nuclear warheads were used on the US Safeguard system and its Soviet counterpart during the early 70s. Some Nike Hercules SAMs also had nukes and this was considered to have a capability against short and medium range ballistic missiles in Europe and South Korea.

The nuclear warhead greatly simplifies the manifold problems of intercepting a ballistic missile. This is why the early ABMs, from the late 50s onward, all had nuclear warheads. Given the technology of the time, there was simply no other workable option.
A low yield warhead exploded in space or in the high atmosphere is certainly better than a big one on the ground. EMP effects are a serious consideration, but (like most things nuclear) probably not as serious as the popular imagination makes them. We have many real examples of EMP effects, from nuclear tests before 1963.
The only one to produce significant effects on civilian systems was the Starfish Prime (scroll to 9 July 1962) shot in the South Pacific. This interrupted radio broadcasts, blew out street lights, and threw breakers in Hawaii, 800 miles away. Starfish Prime was a space detonation and involved a 1.4 megaton warhead, many times larger than what Arrow would need.

It is just speculation, of course, but this could well be the reason for Israel's confidence in the system.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2007-03-30 01:52|| 2007-03-30 01:52|| Front Page Top

#4 Atomic. Wasn't that the proposed original use of the Neutron Bomb?

Posted by Icerigger">Icerigger 2007-03-30 07:11|| 2007-03-30 07:11|| Front Page Top

#5 Icerigger,
Yes. Since blast and thermal effects are largely wasted in space, the main kill mechanism for ABM warheads would have been hard X-rays or neutrons. Research into how to optimize these effects started in the 1950s as part of the ABM program and led eventually to "enhanced radiation" warheads, the so-called neutron bomb.

Interestingly enough, Ariel Sharon apparently once let it slip that Israel has ER warheads. In an outburst at a 2002 news conference, he declared that Israel would "sterilize western Iraq with neutron bombs" if the Saddam regime dared to use WMD against Israel. All attempts to follow up were ignored.

Posted by Atomic Conspiracy 2007-03-30 07:58|| 2007-03-30 07:58|| Front Page Top

#6 just keep giving those israelis money and they keep upgrading while keeping us apprised of the problems in the ME

Posted by Thrineque Black7017 2007-03-30 09:03|| 2007-03-30 09:03|| Front Page Top

#7 just keep giving those israelis money and they keep upgrading while keeping us apprised of the problems in the ME

I once attended a talk by Israel's Defense Minister during Desert Storm where he described how Israeli and American engineers upgraded the Patriot missiles during the war - the foundations of the Arrow. They had teams up on rooftops in Tel Aviv adjusting their algorithms in near realtime as the Scuds were incoming.

Posted by xbalanke 2007-03-30 13:17|| 2007-03-30 13:17|| Front Page Top

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