U.S. Deploys X-Band Radar In Israel

The United States has deployed an X-band radar and 120 personnel to operate it in Israel, in the Negev Desert, to detect incoming enemy missiles such as the Iranian Shahab-3, according to international media reports.

That X-band radar would be linked into both Israeli and U.S. ballistic missile defense radar systems.

Americans also plan to install a powerful radar in the Czech Republic, and interceptors in silos in Poland, to form a European Missile Defense (EMD) system guarding Europe and the United States against missile attacks launched by Middle Eastern nations such as Iran.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said Israel should be wiped from the map, and that it soon shall not exist.

Iran is continuing to manufacture nuclear materials, flouting world condemnation, which Western leaders fear will be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.

There also is fear that those weapons would be mounted on the missile force that Iran is assembling, including Shahab-3s.

While the EMD radar on Czech territory would aid in detecting Iranian missiles fired toward Israel, the radar newly installed in Israel would provide even better capabilities against Iranian weapons.

Iran is feared to be just a year or two away from manufacturing nuclear weaponry, and it already wields missiles capable of reaching Israel.

The U.S. radar is being installed in Israel as speculation mounts that Israel may mount an air strike to demolish Iranian nuclear facilities. (Please see Space & Missile Defense Report, Monday, Oct. 27, 2008.)