US will help Israel detect Iranian missiles, but stay aloof from any Israeli attack |
![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Written by Debka, Agencies | |
Tuesday, 29 July 2008 | |
![]() Raytheon FBX-T Radar The United States agreed to link Israel up to two advanced missile detection systems against potential attack by a nuclear-armed Iran, Israeli defense minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday night, July 30, at the end of his Washington talks. But US officials made it clear that, while prepared to help Israel defend itself against Iranian missile retaliation, they are determined not to be involved in any Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites. DEBKAfile’s military sources report that Washington would deliver within six months “before the new US administration arrives” in January, a powerful forward-based X-band FBX-T radar. Increased access to its Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites, which spot missile launches, would take longer. By putting a time frame around delivery, the Bush administration holds off a possible Israeli attack on Iran for as long as possible. Barak’s talks with Vice President Dick Cheney, defense secretary Robert Gates and secretary of state Condoleezza Rice ended in agreement for Washington to deliver:
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=5477 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- US to give Israel amazing x-band FBX-T radar system Capable of detecting a baseball in flight 2900 miles away the new radar is set to protect Israel from Iran's threats. Just goes to show that Iran's threats only serve to make Israel more powerful and work against their stated aim of destroying Israel. WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Bush administration appears set to offer Israel a powerful radar system that could greatly boost Israeli defenses against enemy ballistic missiles while tying them directly into a growing U.S. missile shield. The system is known as a forward-based X-band radar. Transportable by air, it uses high-powered pulsed beams for extremely high-resolution tracking of objects in space such as a missile that could be tipped with a chemical, germ or nuclear warhead. Built by Raytheon Co, the system has been described by U.S. officials as capable of tracking an object the size of a baseball from about 2,900 miles away. It would let Israel's Arrow missile defenses engage a Shahab-3 ballistic missile about halfway through what would be its 11-minute flight to Israel from Iran, or six times sooner than Israel's "Green Pine" radar is currently capable of doing. With an X-Band system at work a missile intercept theoretically would take place over Iran or a neighboring state and not over Israel. "This is the best thing to lower tensions between Israel and Iran" because Iran presumably would be less likely to attack under such circumstances, Kirk said. Nearly 70 members of Congress, including the top Democrat and Republican on the House of Representatives Armed Services Committee, sent a letter to Bush this week urging him to offer a warning radar that is "fully integrated" with the emerging U.S. shield. The letter, dated May 5 and co-authored by Kirk and California Democratic Rep. Jane Harman, cited a call by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for Israel to be "wiped off the map" and said Iran's ballistic missile program was expanding. An X-band radar would improve "battle management," adding to "early warning" from Israel's access since 2001 to the Defense Support Program military satellite network, hub of a U.S. system to detect missile launches worldwide, the letter said. Lehner, the spokesman for the U.S. Missile Defense Agency, said the Pentagon was planning to have four transportable X-band radars, including one already set up near Shariki in northern Japan to guard against missiles that could be fired by North Korea. A second is due to be deployed at an unspecified location near Iran, possibly in eastern Turkey or Georgia, assuming permission is granted. In addition, the United States is awaiting final approval for a large, fixed-site, tracking radar in the Czech Republic scheduled for deployment by 2013. The transportable X-band radar sites could "go wherever they are needed" at the request of U.S. combatant commanders, Lehner said. Here some links to more X-band fbx-t radar systems. http://www.missilethreat.co... More on the link http://www.reuters.com/arti... Apparently the picture in this article is of the x-band radar system. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Details The FBX-T is a highly mobile, land-based, radar system that would be placed in strategic areas overseas in order to provide additional advance warning of potential ballistic threats from locations near the location of a missile’s launch. The FBX-T can be transported to its destination by air, sea or rail. As the first sensor to pick up a threat at launch, the Forward-Based radar would acquire, track, classify, and estimate the trajectory of a missile and then transmit that information to the “adjunct” radar system for more detailed analysis, with eventual transmission to the rest of the multi-layered U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System. By providing early and accurate target-tracing and signature data the FBX-T would enlarge the effective “battle space” of U.S. interceptors, thereby increasing the threat detection and defense capabilities of the BMDS. Closer proximity to the launch site allows for earlier detection, which decreases the time needed for launch detection as well as supplement tracking and therefore provide greater accuracy for targeting. For example, a missile launched from North Korea or China could be more quickly detected, tracked, and targeted if forward based radars were deployed in such places as South Korea or Japan. The first FBX-T radar unit is scheduled to be ready for deployment by the end of 2005, with operational tracking capability scheduled for early 2006. Three more FBX-T’s are set to be produced in the coming years, with a final deadline of 2010. Sources
|
|
Last Updated ( Wednesday, 30 July 2008 ) |
< Prev | Next > |
---|
The Daily Star >> News >> Lebanon News |
Home |
Contact Us |
News Content |
The Daily Star >> Live News |
BBC News - Home |