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As Hezbollah builds up its rocket arsenal, Israel has asked Washington to help pay for more Iron Dome anti-missile batteries to shield the Jewish state. The Jerusalem Post reports that the Israeli Defense Ministry wants to buy more than a dozen batteries of the system designed to counter short-range missiles fired by the Iranian-backed Lebanese guerrillas and Palestinian Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip. The ministry had allocated $250 million for the development of the system, the bottom layer of a planned three-tier missile defense shield, and the purchase of two batteries. Each Iron Dome battery costs around $25 million,...

Singapore is reported to be acquiring Israel's new Iron Dome anti-missile air-defense system under a once-secret military cooperation pact with the Jewish state that dates to the 1960s. Indeed, according to the Paris Intelligence Online Web site, Singapore helped finance the development of the system by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. It says that Iron Dome was always intended for the island, a key Asian shipping hub and one of the richest per capita states in the world, because of its strategic location as a trading center. The Israeli air force, which runs the Jewish state's air defense network, completed test-firings...

"Air Force strikes in Gaza" SNIPPET: "IDF retaliates for deadly Qassam attack: Air Force hits several Gaza targets, including metal foundry, smuggling tunnel; Vice PM Shalom says Israel to offer strong response to rocket attack that killed Thai worker Thursday" SNIPPET: "IDF aircraft struck at least four targets in the Gaza Strip on Friday, a day after a rocket fired from the Palestinian enclave killed a Thai worker in Israel, Hamas security officials and witnesses said." SNIPPET: "Israel also sent a letter of complaint to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, who is due to visit Israel at the weekend,...

As Israel braces for possible war with Iran and its proxies, a new kind of conflict in which the civilian population will be a primary target for massive missile barrages, there are growing concerns about the military's ability to shield cities as well as its key bases. In the 34-day 2006 war Israel fought with Hezbollah of Lebanon, Tehran's main surrogate in the Levant, the Shiite movement fired some 4,000 rockets, supplied by Iran and Syria, into Israel as far south as the port city of Haifa, at a rate of around 150 per day. That was the deepest Hezbollah...

Israel has completed testing its Iron Dome anti-rocket system, and has bought seven batteries, to be delivered over the next two years. Each battery has radar and control equipment, and four missile launchers. The first battery will be delivered within six months. Based on how that one does, another will be installed on the Lebanese border next year. Each battery costs about $37 million, which includes over fifty missiles. During tests, the system detected and shot down BM-21 and Kassam rockets. The manufacturer, Rafael, was offered a large bonus if they got the system working ahead of schedule. When Iron...

Despite all the media fanfare and ballyhoo about the impending deployment of another missile-defense system, Israeli commentators are warning that the Jewish state's much-vaunted defense shield has a few chinks in it. The Defense Ministry announced on Jan. 7 that Iron Dome, which is designed to shoot down short-range missiles and mortar shells, had sailed through a series of test-firings with flying colors. The first operational battery would soon be deployed on the southern front against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip to counter rockets fired by the Palestinian militants. Iron Dome is intended to be the bottom layer in a missile...

Days after completing a test of its Iron Dome shield, Israel says it will take years before the Jewish state's new rocket anti-missile system will be fully deployed. The warning was sounded by Defense Minister Ehud Barak who predicted, meantime, that once deployed along his country's borders with Gaza and Lebanon, the Iron Dome system will significantly reduce hostilities from militants. Developed over the last two years at a cost of $200 million by state-owned Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., the Iron Dome uses small guided missiles to destroy short-range rockets used by Hezbollah and Hamas militants. The system, which...

Israel has completed testing its Iron Dome short-range missile defence system, designed to protect the Jewish state from missile attacks by the Lebanese Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas. The first Iron Dome battery is expected to be deployed in the country's south in about six weeks. Expected to be operational by May, the Iron Dome system is expected to counter Hamas' improvised rockets, called the Qassam. The system will be operated by the Israeli Air Force. Subsequently, batteries will be deployed in the country's north against the Hezbollah's more varied missile forces. "Making Iron Dome operational will transform Israel's political...

Israel has completed tests on its Iron Dome anti-missile system, designed to provide a response to the thousands of rockets fired at Israel by Hamas and Hezbollah, the defence ministry said. The system, which can intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells, underwent its final tests in the past 48 hours, a statement said. "For the first time, Iron Dome faced multiple threats simultaneously. All the threats were intercepted with complete success," the statement said. The next phase in the development of the system was to integrate it into the army, the statement said. Israel hopes the system will provide it...

Israel's new rocket defense system has proven a hit-to-kill capability. Officials said Israel's Iron Dome has achieved the ability to strike incoming short-range missiles and rockets. They said the Iron Dome demonstrated this during its first live fire test in mid-2009. "They met head on," Defense Minister Ehud Barak said. In a Nov. 17 address to the International Aerospace Conference and Exhibition-Israel, Barak said Iron Dome exceeded all expectations. He said the assessment within the Defense Ministry and military had been that the interceptor would explode 10 meters from the incoming missile.

Israeli President Shimon Peres claims that Lebanon's Hezbollah now has an arsenal of 80,000 rockets to bombard Israel -- double the previous estimate by Israeli intelligence and almost four times the number the Iranian-backed militants possessed during their 2006 war with the Jewish state. Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh has dismissed as "lies" the claim made by Peres in an interview with the Kuwait daily Al-Rai published Sunday. "I don't know how he counted these rockets." But the Israeli leader's claim has fuelled regional fears that a new conflict between Hezbollah and Israel is brewing. There has been no independent...

Israel's drive to deploy the Iron Dome anti-missile shield against short-range rockets fired by Hezbollah and Hamas has moved up a gear with the induction of the first battalion to man the batteries that will operate on the borders with Lebanon and the Gaza Strip. Iron Dome intercepted three 122mm Grad rockets, the type used by Hezbollah and the Palestinians, in southern Israel July 15-16. The system came into being in response to constant rocket attacks by Hezbollah on Israel's northern front and Hamas on the southern desert frontier over the last decade. Both fronts have been relatively calm for...

Israel's new anti-ballistic defense system, designed to protect civilians against terrorist rocket fire from Gaza, passed series of live tests on Wednesday. A defense official explained that the test of the Iron Dome defense system marked the first time that the system tested a mid-air deception of a target rocket, which was completely destroyed. Iron Dome works by intercepting medium-range Katyusha rockets as well as the shorter, homemade Kassam rockets and mortar shells fired by Gaza terrorists. It uses a small kinetic missile interceptor called the “Tamir.” The anti-ballistic sytem is expected to intercept rockets between the ranges of 2-45...

The Iron Dome missile defense system successfully intercepting a number of rockets that mimicked Kassam and short-range Grad-model Katyusha rockets in a series of system tests the Defense Ministry conducted this week. The Iron Dome, under development by Rafael Defense Systems, is slated to become operational sometime in 2010 and to be capable of intercepting short-range Kassam and Katyusha rockets fired by Hamas in the Gaza Strip and Hizbullah in Southern Lebanon. The Iron Dome uses an advanced radar that locates and tracks the rocket that is then intercepted by a kinetic missile interceptor. "A multi-level defense system is a...

The Iron Dome anti-rocket shield passed a critical test in the past 48 hours, the Defense Ministry said on Thursday evening, in a message that will be welcomed by residents of the rocket-battered western Negev. During the test, a number of rockets were launched, "of the same type that were fired in recent years at Israel," and the Iron Dome system responded "accordingly," the Defense Ministry said, using terminology indicating a successful interception of the projectiles. The Iron Dome system is slated to defend southern and northern Israel from Hamas and Hizbullah rockets, and be a key component in a...

Israel has successfully tested a new defence system designed to intercept rockets fired from southern Lebanon and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, public radio reported on Sunday. The "Iron Dome" system is expected to be fully operational within a year and will be able to intercept the military-grade Katyusha rockets used by Lebanon's Hezbollah militia and the cruder Qassam rockets favoured by Hamas. Citing Israeli security officials, public radio said the system would also be effective against mortar fire which has a much smaller window of warning. In January Prime Minister Ehud Olmert viewed a prototype of the 200-million-dollar (140-million-euro) system,...