Hez b'Allah increased rocket range

JERUSALEM ISRAEL - With Iranian backing, Hezbollah guerrillas have dramatically increased their rocket range and can now threaten most of Israel, senior Israeli defense officials said. The Lebanese group has acquired new Iranian rockets with a range of about 185 miles, the officials said Wednesday. That means the guerrillas can hit anywhere in Israel's heavily populated center and reach as far south as Dimona, where Israel's nuclear reactor is located.

The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to divulge the confidential intelligence assessment to the media.

See also: Israeli Arab accused of spying for Hezbollah

Comments

[scp]

Perhaps a modified CIWS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phalanx_CIWS ) might help, at least for components of critical infrastructure.

[scp]

Imagine a pair of IDF aircraft, in orbits at or near the northern Gaza Strip, constantly exchanging telemetry information one with another (mostly relative bearing and direction), using lazers or perhaps GPS. One or both aircraft would also be in similar contact with a station on the ground at a known position. The two aircraft would fly high, beyond visual altitude, and seperated from one another enough to provide stereoscopic vision of the ground below, to speed up range calculations. Bearing calculations to an arbitrary point on the ground (in Gaza) could be made based on 1) the positioning between these surveillance aircraft and the reference ground point, and 2) the azimuth and depression angles between one of the aircraft and the target to be destroyed. When a ground launch is detected, perhaps by a sudden, isolated, change in temperature at a point on the ground, a controller on one of the surveillance aircraft immediately "paints" that spot with a gyrostabilized lazer, so he can "fire and forget." Then, at the press of a button, a command is issued to a ground battery that fires lazer-seeking artillery rounds (the cannon on the ground being fired from the aircraft overhead). Within /seconds/, the kassam launch site is destroyed, perhaps killing that crew in the process.

[scp]

Imagine the above idea being massively scaled up, using some AWACS-type aircraft that uses some kind of a downward looking radar. Perhaps that might help against a Katyusha barrage from hezbolla.

[scp]

Can AEGIS ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aegis_combat_system ) be used to defend a land target? If so, how much of Israel could be covered?

[scp]

Oh *man*, I've got to go to bed . . .