Koreans eyeing Iron Dome

Iron Dome, which uses guided missiles to shoot down the Katyusha-style short-range rockets favored by Palestinian and Lebanese guerrillas, has scored around a 90% success rate in the month-old Gaza war, Israeli officials and U.S. observers say.

Rafael CEO Yedidia Yaari said the system’s performance had fuelled foreign interest in it, including by South Korea, which is in an armed standoff with North Korea: “South Korea is very worried not only about rockets, but other things as well ... You can certainly include them in the club of interested countries,” Yaari told Israel’s Army Radio, saying Rafael representatives had visited Seoul to promote Iron Dome.

Yaari did not give details on how advanced such a deal with South Korea may be. Rafael has not made public any foreign sales so far, saying it was giving priority to supplying Iron Domes to Israel, which has fielded nine out of a planned total of 12 interceptor units. Each Iron Dome battery costs around $50 million, and each interceptor missile between $30,000 and $50,000. Participating in Iron Dome’s production are Israeli defense contractors Elisra Group, Israel Aerospace Industries, and U.S. defense contractor Raytheon.

Israel has defenses against Yakhonts

Israel has defenses in place against the supersonic Russian- made Yakhont anti-ship missile, ex-navy chief Vice-Admiral (res.) Eliezer Marom told recently in a press conference. Describing the Yakhont as the most advanced missile of its kind in the world, Marom said the West does not know very much about the weapon, which flies at low altitude “right over the sea,” reaching speeds of between Mach 2 and Mach 3 (up to three times the speed of sound). (Read more)

Israel deploys full missile defenses

Israel is deploying all of its missile defenses as a precaution against possible Syrian retaliatory attacks should Western powers carry out threatened strikes on Syria, Israeli Army Radio said today.

No special troop movements or exercises have been ordered (apart of a small-scale mobilisation of reservists) but additional Iron Dome and Patriot missile defense batteries were deployed Wednesday in Israeli areas near the Syrian border, Israeli defense officials said.

The missile defenses include:

• Against long range missiles: Arrow-II
• Against medium range missiles: Patriot
• Against short range missiles: Iron Dome

Israel says the Iron Dome system shot down one of the four rockets launched from Lebanon into northern Israel last week, and intercepted a rocket fired toward the Red Sea resort town of Eilat earlier this month. The Iron Dome system has also intercepted rockets launched from the Gaza Strip.