Israel's manifest failures, Lebanon and Gaza and the 'Qassams'
Iron Dome and the unrecognized threat?
Successive Israeli governments have ignored the Palestinian missile and weapons tunnel threat despite thousands of attacks, an official report found. A report by Israel's State Comptroller determined that governments waited at least five years to respond to the Palestinian missile threat.
The report said more than 6,000 missiles, rockets and mortars had been fired against Israeli targets until January 2007, when the government awarded a contract to develop a defense system.
The Iron Dome prototype by the state-owned Rafael, Israel Armament Development Authority is expected to take at least two years to complete. The Rafael design bested several other proposals, including that of a U.S.-origin laser weapon.
The report said the Israeli military failed to draft a strategy to combat rocket and missile strikes. After several years of Palestinian attacks, the military ordered rocket defense system prototypes without determining requirements or conducting sufficient field trials, the comptroller said. From 2001 through 2006, 4,584 mortars and 1,914 rockets were fired against Israeli targets, the military said.
More than 1,200 missiles and rockets were fired from the Gaza Strip since the Israeli withdrawal in September 2005.
The military identified a missile threat from the Gaza Strip in 2001, the report said, but the chief of staff waited until 2004 to study the threat, and by the end of 2005 had failed to draft strategy.
WTF?
In 2005 the military's Southern Command installed an unidentified system by Rafael to intercept short-range missiles fired from the Gaza Strip.
The system, termed "A," was said to have been partially successful, and two batteries were ordered at a cost of 22 million shekels or about $5.5 million.
"The dealings between Rafael and the [Defense Ministry's] Research and Development Directorate to develop a prototype of 'System A' and its deployment were conducted without technical contacts that defined the project requirements, capabilities, trials and safety," stated the report.
"As a result, development of the prototype was delayed." The report said the military also deployed a missile detection system before the completion of trials and the drafting of requirements.
The system was eventually deemed unreliable. The military was also said to have ignored the threat of Palestinian weapons smuggling and explosive tunnels for nearly 20 years.
In 2001, the military received nine proposals to develop systems to detect tunnels. A selected system, termed "A," was never completed. "Not one of the tunnel detection and location systems matured to the point of full-scale development and equipping," stated the report.
"There were prolonged recesses in development of System A, the reasons for which were unclear." [On May 10, a war commission released transcripts of testimony in which Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Dan Halutz said Defense Minister Amir Peretz was too preoccupied with political tasks to understand the security threats to Israel.Now if I live in southern Israel, I am in the streets making great big signs with all my neighbors if that's true.
Halutz said he realized he would have a more difficult task with Peretz who, unlike his predecessors, did not come from the military.] Between 2001 and 2004, seven soldiers were killed from Palestinian tunnels filled with explosives constructed under Israeli military outposts in the Gaza Strip.
In June 2006, two Israeli soldiers were killed and a third was abducted when Palestinian fighters emerged from a tunnel that reached an Israeli military base. In 2004, a recommendation to Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Moshe Ya'alon called for the establishment of a unit to draft options to resolve the tunnel threat.
The recommendation was ignored. The military said development plans were hampered by budget shortfalls. A statement said the General Staff had examined plans for rocket defense and tunnel detection. "Budget cuts and delays in receiving approval have made it difficult to formulate a long-term plan for the formation of an Israel Defense Forces unit, particularly regarding the prevention of high trajectory fire," a military statement said.
0 TrackBacks
Listed below are links to blogs that reference this entry: Israel's manifest failures, Lebanon and Gaza and the 'Qassams'.
TrackBack URL for this entry: http://vwt.d2g.com:8081/mt-tb.cgi/4003
