February5, 2007:
Israel has selected the Rafael Iron Cap anti-missile system to protect
the country from short range rockets fired by Hizbollah and Palestinian
terrorists. The Israeli firm that developed Iron Cap, says it will be ready for
action in three years. Iron Cap uses a lot of the current radar technology.
Israel already has a radar system that warns people in southern towns when a
Palestinian Kassam rocket is headed their way. Iron Cap will intercept incoming
rockets with 200 pound, high-speed missiles. Twenty of these missiles will be
carried on each truck mounted launcher. The entire Iron Cap system will consist
of fifty truck launchers, 2,000 missiles, radars to cover the northern and
southern borders, as well as command and control equipment. Iron Cap will not
intercept all rockets. For example, only about twenty percent of the 4,000
Hizbollah rockets fired last Summer, landed near an inhabited area. Even fewer
of the 2,500 rockets Palestinians have fired in the last six years have done so
either. So Iron Cap will only intercept rockets that appear headed for people.
The initial system will cost about $600 million.