Israel Pursues High Tech Despite War Costs

Aviation Week and Space Technology | June 24, 2002 | David A. Fulghum and Robert Wall

[Stand Watch Listen]

UAVs, missile defenses, precision weapons and new explosive-detection systems dominate research

By David A. Fulghum and Robert Wall, Tel Aviv

With the nation's economy battered by two years of conflict with Palestinian militants, planners for Israel's defense forces have been forced to revamp military spending priorities in order to continue the introduction of critical new technologies.

With research and development funding shrinking and operational costs consuming an increasing amount of the defense budget, programs for ground forces are being delayed while those involving unmanned aircraft, communications, intelligence gathering and missile defense are accelerated.

Because of the need to budget for "low-intensity conflict" with the Palestinians while also improving defenses against Iran and Iraq, which continue developing weapons of mass destruction, "some [funding] may be taken from the regular army," said Dan Meridor, minister for national security matters in the administration of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

The squeeze on spending for new technologies also has been tightened by the war-driven need to replenish ammunition and equipment and to pay for reservists called up to support the combat against Palestinian militants.

"Technology can give you almost everything you need, but technology requires money," said Army Brig. Gen. Shmuel Yachin, the Defense Ministry's chief of research and development. Israel's annual defense budget at the start of the recent fighting stood at $7 billion.

From the political perspective, Israel is pulling in less revenue because West Bank fighting and suicide bombings have pummeled high-tech industry and tourism. While military budgets need to stay at about 10% of GDP, planners "don't want it to curtail the economy," said Meridor. But even with pressing demands for additional defense spending, the budget is limited and the question for Israel's defense planners is, "Do new, near-term monies go a few places, or is it scattered among many new technologies?" Meridor asked.

"We're familiar with conflict with and without common borders and against both terrorists and regular forces," said Maj. Gen. Dani Haloutz, chief of the Israel Air Force (IAF). "But how well are we prioritizing our buildup when it all comes simultaneously? What happens when we have to operate in all three dimensions? On the offense and defense? Against long- and short-range threats? With passive and active assets?"

One strategy will be to freeze the size of Israel's ground forces while improving their fighting capabilities with upgraded systems such as the Merkava 4 tank, said Brig. Gen. (ret.) Kuti Mor, the Defense Ministry's director general for advanced planning. In a similar vein, they should dramatically improve antitank capabilities with the Raphael-built Spike missile that can be fired from attack helicopters and UAVs, he said.

Money saved by holding the ground forces' size in check will be redistributed to address new or growing threats, such as adding layers to ballistic missile defenses, increasing border police, improving intelligence gathering and precision weaponry, and fielding more types of unmanned aircraft. "In this new era, we have a wider scope of enemies," Meridor said. "It's not just our [Palestinian] neighbors; there's Iran and Iraq in the third circle. We need to be there with unmanned [surveillance] instruments."

The diversity of operational scenarios should influence modernization, Haloutz said. "When we are building the force, we should find ways to use means that would serve in the large conflict as well as the [insurgency] conflict," he said. Managing the juggling act is particularly important for the IAF, he noted, since "there is not a single mission in which the air force is not involved." Fielding multirole weapons also should reduce budget pressure.

Another way to save is to innovate with speed and through the use of off-the-shelf technologies that require less development. For that purpose, the Israel Defense Force (IDF) has instituted the "Brigadier Generals' Forum" to find new technologies. During the last two years, these forums have focused on nine areas where the generals believe R&D funds should be invested to help solve problems revealed by Israel's two-year "mini-war" with Palestinian militants.

Inaugurated in summer 2000, these forums are called whenever a knotty problem for the military emerges. Four or five brigadier generals are asked to find near-term solutions and name a team of specialists to provide detailed analysis of how to field the new capability, Yachin said. One criterion for the recommendations is that these technologies be demonstrated in "not more than three months." The forums, officials say, have had remarkable success in reducing the timelines for producing operational solutions.

The antimissile net is an example of a forum idea that was adopted. Hezbollah forces had been attacking military sites with rocket-propelled grenades and Sagger antitank missiles, so industry built a metal net that detonates the weapons before they hit an important structure. The nets can now be seen in front of key Israeli positions, particularly radar and electronic intelligence-gathering sites along the border with Lebanon.

Heading the IDF's list of problems to be solved is how to develop a sensor that can detect explosives at a range of 20-30 meters or more that would allow security forces to spot human bombers, said Yachin, a decorated veteran of the 1973 Yom Kippur war.

April fighting in Jenin's Palestinian refugee camp left an indelible mark ( AW&ST May 13, p. 24).

"If we have to enter the refugee camps again, how do we do it better?" he said. "They surrendered, but only because we started bulldozing [the buildings the Palestinian militants fought from]. We need to give soldiers a way to find and explode booby traps." The IDF also wants to find bomb factories at a distance. In Nablus, a tank shot at a house, which exploded because it contained a bomb factory.

IDF planners also would like their forces to be able to see well, find targets, direct the fighting and operate sensors while staying fully inside their tanks and armored personnel carriers (which nowadays are converted Centurion tanks, adapted because of their heavy armor).

"We have some leads, but they're mostly for [use at] closer ranges," he said. Among them are Israel Aircraft Industries' efforts in hyperspectral sensing, which looks for the unique electromagnetic signature of a material that can be used to identify specific types of explosives. He also said the IDF is involved in cooperative efforts with the U.S. to pool research.

Almost as crucial to the IDF as the detection of explosives are layered defenses against tactical ballistic missiles--an issue of tremendous political impact since Iraq struck Tel Aviv with Scuds during the 1990-91 Persian Gulf war. Israel has the first battery of Arrow missiles in place as well as upgraded Patriots and the Tactical High-Energy Laser, the last to fend off unguided Katyusha-type rockets. The newest elements are long-range strike aircraft and missile-armed unmanned aircraft. The IAF has just ordered 100 new F-16Is with conformal fuel tanks--so they can accompany their F-15Is--for long-range missions to the second- and third-ring nations surrounding Israel. Moreover, after being rebuffed by the Pentagon, Israel decided to unilaterally develop armed UAVs to attack ballistic missile launchers and launch sites. "We have already started," Yachin said.

Third in Israel's priorities is precise weapons delivery. Planners want precision in locating targets and short timelines for striking them. "We have the technical capability and the unique intelligence to make this work," Yachin said.

PART OF ANY PRECISION bombing solution is to develop a common view of the battlefield. The Israelis have equipped all their aircraft with forward-looking infrared sensors, but they want an all-weather picture, which means adding sensors such as a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) and moving-target indicator (MTI) and then fusing their output.

Also in the mix will be images from high-resolution sensors on large, new UAVs. "We need the capability to communicate, detect and hit [targets, even with] UAVs, from hundreds of kilometers away," Mor said. "The concept of missiles on UAVs is a good one." Another element in the formula will be advanced stealth technology (into the -25-dBsm. range) for aircraft and UAVs. "At the end of the day, we will have it," Mor said.

Development of a beyond-visual-range air-to-air missile is another IAF initiative. What was once known as the Python V has evolved into a classified program with a different name. The main change in the new missile is expected to be its ability to defeat the spoofing efforts of even the best electronic warfare suites. An associated effort is focusing on boosting the range of identification-friend-or-foe systems to wean pilots from the need to "see the whites of their [target's] eyes," Yachin said. "When we task the air force to go 1,000 km. into enemy territory, we want to give them the best offense and defense."

Fifth on the priority list is the army's development of a battalion combat team as the basic all-arms fighting unit. Previously the brigade was smallest all-arms unit. But to improve speed of maneuver and flexibility in tailoring forces for the present era of combat, Israel is moving to the smaller unit, said Mor. Potential enemies (in particular, Syria)would not be able to defeat Israel with their armored forces, so in a conflict they would rely on "huge numbers of antitank guided missiles" such as the Russian-built Kornet and MTIS, Yachin said. Israel is responding with better protection for its armored vehicles and improved battlefield coordination among combat units.

Space is another area of continued spending. Israel wants to improve its space-based assets with the ability to put 700-lb. satellite payloads into orbit from Israel. Officials point out that they work under a handicap, because they have to launch to the west to avoid alarming their neighbors. Therefore, they need more powerful boosters than if they could launch eastward to take advantage of the Earth's rotation.

"We've had bitter experience with reliance on allies [to provide wartime space reconnaissance]," Yachin said. "So we can't put all our eggs in the same basket." Planners believe they may be able to get by with a two- or three-satellite constellation equipped with electro-optical, SAR and MTI sensors in low-Earth orbit.

Computer warfare also rates a place on the priority list. While offering no details, Yachin cited the obvious benefits of being able to mine enemy computer systems for intelligence purposes and also being able to shut down a network. One reason Israeli experts want to fully understand computer warfare is because their country is the most technically advanced in the region and, thus, the most vulnerable to enemy attacks. They believe a good understanding of the computer network attack mission will lead to more effective defenses.

PLANNERS REGARD computer network attack as a good area for investment, but contend that embracing the whole spectrum of information warfare would be too big an effort; nor do they anticipate any near-term effort to produce high-power microwave weapons that could scramble computer memories, damage circuitry and burn out electric motors of an enemy force. "There's no easy way to do that," he said. "There are many good ideas around, but when you do the analysis, you find out that 90% of them are worth nothing. We're not short of ideas, but you can't deploy most of them."