May 12,
2008: The U.S. will provide Israel with
a mobile X-band radar that will enable it to detect incoming ballistic missiles
father away. Currently, the Israeli
Green Pine radar would only detect a ballistic missile fired from Iran when the
missile warhead is about two minutes from hitting a target in Israel. The
X-band radar would allow the Iranian missile to be spotted when it was 5-6
minutes away, enabling the Israeli Arrow anti-missile missile to hit the
Iranian warhead farther away and with greater certainty.
Israel has
two batteries of Arrow missiles, and
over a hundred missiles available. An Arrow battery has 4-8 launchers, and each
launcher carries a six missiles in containers. The Arrow was developed to knock
down Scud type missiles fired from Syria, Saudi Arabia or Iraq. The two ton
Arrow is being replaced with the 1.3 ton Arrow II, which can shoot down longer
range ballistic missiles fired from Iran.
