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A word from the Director …
IMDA, along with partners Technologies Group and The Israel Society of Aeronautics and Astronautics, held Israel’s first- ever Multinational Ballistic Missile Defense Conference in Tel Aviv, May 5 and 6. The conference provided a professional forum for Israeli missile-defense engineers and managers and their colleagues from around the world. Its open format provided a rare public window into the complex world of missile defense technology.
A major theme of the conference was the growing danger Iran poses to Israel, the Middle East, Europe and the U.S. This growing danger has now been officially recognized in a new Pentagon report projecting Iranian development of an ICBM capable of reaching the United States within five years. Coincidentally, it was just reported recently that nuclear warhead tooling was provided to Iran by black market dealers in Germany.
While Iran continues to take center stage, Syria’s recent Scud transfers to Hezbollah have added to concerns that began last year when Hezbollah began stockpiling the Fatah 110 solid fuel missile. With a launch time as short as a few minutes and a five to ten meter targeting accuracy, the Fatah 110 had already raised serious concerns. This new expanded arsenal, with both Fatah 110 and Scud missiles, has made it clear that Israel is facing a rapidly growing multi-national, multi-dimensional missile threat. This expanded threat is giving a new sense of urgency to Israel’s deployed missile defense systems and to new systems in development.
Internationally, another consequence has been that even before development of formalized accords, Israel and its U.S. partner are finding ways to make rapid progress on development of the new Arrow 3 interceptor. In Europe, these concerns are underlining U.S. commitment to an effective missile defense architecture by the end of the current decade. They are also fueling interest in added capability for existing interceptors, and in possible new, highly leveraging missile sensors. The PAC-3 interceptor, for example, recently demonstrated a new system enhancement in testing in White Sands, New Mexico. And systems like Northrop Grumman’s proposed unmanned, UAV-based ballistic missile surveillance system are getting a fresh look. Israeli sources say the Northrop system would be more expensive and more complex than a comparable Israeli-proposed system also under review by the Pentagon.
We are living during a dangerous and transitional time. Increasingly, the news each month is telling a story of growing missile and nuclear warhead proliferation among the least stable and most dangerous regimes in the world. One of the take-away messages, both from the new Pentagon report and from international presenters at the recent Tel Aviv conference is that these threats are becoming, more and more, a global concern.
Thank you very much to all the co-hosts, sponsors, presenters and participants in our conference. For those who were unable to be present we will be taking a unique step – many of the presentations will soon be available online, hosted on our website. Look for an update in our next newsletter.
Thank you for your continued interest and support.
Avi Schnurr
Executive Director, Israel Missile Defense Association
avi@imda.org.il
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