Free Republic

About 32 missiles (icons) struck Israel's Nevatim Air Base during the October 2 Iranian attack, according to the head of the CNS research centre at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

(IsraelNN.com) International travelers in and out Israel may find themselves in the Negev instead of at the venerable Ben Gurion Airport in a few years. Deputy Prime Minister Silvan Shalom, who also is Minister for the Development of the Negev and the Galilee, has proposed a new international facility to boost growth in the Negev and take the load off the Ben Gurion airport, located between Tel Aviv and Jerusalem.

Excerpt - The U.S. Army's European Command deployed an early-warning radar system in Israel last week along with a 120-member support team, the weekly Defense News reported. The move marks the first permanent presence in Israel of American military personnel. The high-powered radar system is meant to augment Israel's defenses against Iranian ground-to-ground missiles. According to Defense News, more than a dozen transport aircraft delivered the radar, its ancillary systems, equipment and technicians, as well as maintenance and security specialists to the Nevatim Air Force Base in the Negev. It has not yet been made operational. ~ snip ~

(IsraelNN.com) The Israel Air Force has been quietly transforming its Nevatim base, a standard air force installation, into a Middle East wonder of the military world. The plan to expand and upgrade the base into a massive complex designed to house various operational buildings as well as thousands of IAF personnel is well underway, with construction of the new base almost complete. But the real centerpiece of the improved Negev-based IAF complex is its new landing strip, a whopping 2.5-mile paved highway on which the largest transport aircraft can land. It will be the largest landing strip in the entire...

April 2, 2003 IAF Revitalizes Nevatim Air Force Base Tens of F-16 fighter jets, originating from a base in the south of the country, landed yesterday, (March 31, 2003) at the Nevatim Air Force base. A ceremony for the transfer of the squadron was held in the presence of the Commander of the Israeli Air Force, Major General Dan Halutz. The new squadron will be known as the "Flying Wing." F-16's were introduced to the Israeli Air Force in 1980, and currently serve as the backbone of the IAF. A year after their arrival, the planes were deployed to bomb...