Free Republic

Key leaders of the U.S. Congress want U.S. President Barack Obama to provide funds to help Israel, should it request it, to produce more batteries of the Iron Dome counter-rocket system. Israel's air force has three batteries deployed to protect cities in the southern Negev Desert against rockets fired by Palestinian militants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip but budget problems mean it can't fund more batteries needed to shield the rest of the country. Iron Dome, which racked up a 90 percent kill rate against Palestinian Qassam and Grad rockets in recent weeks, was developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems...

Israel conducted a massive controlled explosion to calibrate instruments at seismic monitoring stations worldwide, officials said. Using 100 tons of explosives, The Geophysical Institute of Israel conducted the explosion at a site in the Negev on Wednesday. It registered 2.7 on the Richter scale, and created a mushroom cloud that reached the height of up to 1.78 miles, or three kilometers, Haaretz reported Thursday. Local scientists and scientists from the U.S. and France as well as journalists observed the blast. Dr. Rami Hofstetter, head of seismology at the Geophysical Institute told the newspaper the experiment was important to study how...

An Israeli F-16I crashed Wednesday night in southern Israel during a routine training flight, the Israel Defense Forces said in a statement. Both crew were killed in the incident. The F-16I "Sufa" (F-16D block 52) was part of a four ship formation that was on a training exercise from Ramon Air Force Base and crashed somewhere in the area of Mitzpeh Ramon at around 20:00h local time on Wednesday. IDF/AF investigators suspect that the pilot did not realize how low he had flown because no distress call was received

Israel wants the Obama administration and Lockheed-Martin Company to set up a US-run logistics and maintenance center for the F-35 Lightning II fighter jet in the Negev, reports "Defense News", quoting US and Israeli government and industry sources. Lockheed-Martin is the chief contractor for the F-35, which is due to become the next-generation mainstay of the Israel Air Force. Defense News" says that Israeli officials consider construction of a large logistics center to be a critical factor for independent operational capabilities, especially since airports and seaports are liable to be targets of rocket and missile attacks in a war. Ministry...

On a recent training exercise U.S. Air Force Europe (USAFE) C-130J Hercules tactical transport aircraft and their crews deployed to the Israel Air Force Base at Nevatim, in the Northern Negev desert in southern Israel, for a period of 10 days. According to USAFE, news release, the units, belonging to Ramstein, Germany based 37th Airlift Squadron participated in the exercise Dec. 1 through 10 to accomplish various training requirements for the C-130J Super Hercules which are not allowed in Germany because of country regulations.

The Israeli air force scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday after a light aircraft flew into restricted air space over its nuclear reactor in the southern Negev desert, the military said. The warplanes intercepted the aircraft and forced it to land at a nearby airstrip, where the two pilots were handed over to civilian authorities for investigation, an army spokeswoman said. Police had no immediate comment but Israeli media reported that the two men, from central Israel, claimed to have lost their way. Aircraft are forbidden from flying over the reactor near the desert town of Dimona. Israel says the reactor...

MOSSAD'S KILLING MACHINE COMES TO BRITAIN A killing war between Israel's Mossad and Islamic fanatics came closer this weekend in Britain. The Israeli intelligence agency has sent four members of its kidon assassination squad to this country, to join fifteen other handpicked katsas, its relentless field agents. Their brief is to "disable" any of the "close to 50" British Muslims that the extremist Islamic group, Al-Muhajiroun, last week boasted were ready to carry out suicide missions similar to the one in Tel Aviv. Al-Muhajiroun spokesman, Asif Butt, said the 50 were "primed and ready to go". The threat was sufficient...