Flash: Israel Prepares For Iran Conflict

Carrera

The Israelis have upgraded their Arrow defense missile system and increased the effective range of the Greenpine control radar. The anticipation of a future strike against Iran has led Israel to forge closer ties to the U.S. in seeking a common missile defense system.
The first sign of this is the more advanced version of the PAC-3 Patriot arriving in Israel, followed by a quick series of successful tests by the IDF.
However, Israel was unable to defend itself against the rain of short range missiles fired by Hezbollah. The Hezbollah attacks are seen as a warning. Future opponents will use more sophisticated weapons potentially armed with more deadly warheads.
The lack of a defense has brought back a system jointly developed by the United States and Israel. The Israeli government is working with the United States to restart a canceled laser anti-missile system named THEL, which stands for "Tactical High Energy Laser."
The manufacturer, Northrop Grumman, originally developed THEL for combat but it remained cumbersome to deploy, requiring several vehicles that covered nearly a football field. However, live fire tests demonstrated that THEL was very successful.
Tests last year showed the powerful chemical laser was able to knock down barrages of incoming mortar shells, short range rockets and even artillery shells. Israel dropped out of the project early in 2006 because of the multi-billion dollar cost.
Now the Israelis want a new version of THEL.
The developer of THEL, Northrop Grumman, has openly stated that it can have the laser anti-missile system ready in 18 months, at a development cost of $400 million.

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