Tech Terrible for Israeli Ops?

One of the biggest concerns about high-tech, so-called "network-centric" warfare was that it would lure commanders into conducting push-button wars -- directing action from their wired hub in the rear, while their troops were fighting in the front.

"In Lebanon, Israel’s first digitized ground war," Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome reports, those fears appear to have been realized. "After-action probes found egregious cases where commanders relied on [sensor feeds] instead of moving forward to assess critical points in the evolving battle."

“This war underscored the limitations of plasma, especially when it is accorded disproportionate priority over training and discipline,” said Matan Vilnai, a retired major general and former Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) deputy chief of staff, now a prominent member of Israel’s Labor Party.

In post-Lebanon War Israel, “plasma” has become derisive shorthand for the virtual command and control provided through networked operations...

Examples of such dangers were found in the wartime functioning of two critical divisions, where both brigadier generals were assailed for lack of hands-on contact with forces under their command.

In the case of IDF 162 Division, the commander managed the entire war from deep inside home territory, venturing only twice and for very brief periods beyond the Lebanese border. Whether by sheer misfortune or as a direct result of the hands-off command style, the 162 Division’s 401 Armored Brigade and Nahal Infantry Brigade were involved in one of the war’s biggest blunders, which claimed the lives of 12 Israeli soldiers.

How Israel's Drones Fought the War, Part II

Israeli military chiefs are being taken out to the woodshed for relying on airpower during the summer campaign in Lebanon. "But after-action data and battlefield imagery are revealing great advances in the ability to respond to asymmetric threats," says Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome. Thanks largely to unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), "more than 90 percent of the medium-range missile launchers used by Hizbollah were destroyed almost immediately after they fired their first weapon."

By the third night [of the war], the IAF [Israeli Air Force] attained full operational capability of the world’s first Boost Phase Launch Intercept (BPLI) force [maybe it's more of a "a search and destroy operation," as Bill noted in the comments -- ed.] a tightly linked network of manned aircraft and UAVs that saturated the airspace to hunt and immediately kill small, mobile, medium-range missile launchers.

It didn't work against the terror group's teeny-tiny Katyusha rockets. But Israel’s BPLI capability did managed to knock out "more than 100 launchers during the more-than month-long war." UAVs "like the Elbit Hermes 450S Zik, the Shoval (Heron-1/Crusher) and Searcher-2 built by Israel Aircraft Industries" did the lion's share of the work.

“This was the first large-scale use of UAVs, not only for providing a continuous presence over the entire battle area, but in [assisting the direction and delivery of] smart munitions to these very small, well hidden, moving targets,” said Isaac Ben-Israel, a retired IAF major general and former director of Israeli defense research and development...

“This is not like a targeted killing where we have two weeks to plan,” Ben-Israel said. “Here, there’s only a matter of seconds between the time the terrorists emerged to launch these missiles to the time when they returned to their hiding places among innocent civilians. Those medium-range missile launchers became suicide launchers. They were destroyed either before or immediately after they fired their first missile.”

The Israeli Air Force also got better about detecting -- and taking out -- Hezbollah drones. By tweaking "multiple radars never designed to detect such small, slow-moving, pinpoint targets.... F-16C fighter pilots on air patrol [were able] to blast the [unmanned] offenders from Israeli and Lebanese skies with Python-5 dogfighting missiles."

According to Israeli military data, Hizbollah launched four Iranian-made Ababil UAVs during the war. One apparently exploded upon launch; another penetrated Israeli airspace, but crashed just south of the Lebanon border; and the other two were downed over the sea southwest of Haifa and near the area of Tzur in southern Lebanon.

Remnants of the downed drones showed that at least one was equipped with nearly 10 kilograms of explosives, which Israeli intelligence sources believe was destined for Tel Aviv. According to officials here, the UAV that crashed upon launch may have carried a payload of up to 50 kilograms.

Examination of cockpit imagery from one of the engagements shows detection of the target at extremely short range — close enough for the pilot to actually see the UAV. From an extraordinarily low altitude of less than 2,000 feet and at very low speed, the pilot launched his Python-5, which immediately arched and locked on to its target. Imagery shows the missile maneuvering at nearly 90 degrees for a matter of seconds before blasting the gnat-sized target with its explosive warhead.

“This is an historic first for us, and professionals will understand how complicated the mission is. It’s not the classic engagement of an F-16 versus a MiG, where you have a competing aircraft and radar. In this scenario, it’s not plane against plane, but rather network against an asymmetrical target you can barely see,” said the senior IAF official.

How Israel's Drones Fought the War

Israel pioneered the art of using drones in combat. So it's a little surprising that the robotic spy planes got so little play in the accounts of the Sabras' recent conflict with Hezbollah. Flight International tries to fix that, with a detail-rich report card on how the Israeli unmanned air force performed.

With the outbreak of hostilities on 12 July, the air force focused its efforts on suppressing Hezbollah's launch capabilities, cutting off its resupply routes from Syria and destroying the fully Hezbollah-controlled quarter of Beirut. UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles] served as the eyes and ears for these operations, launching from bases in central and northern Israel and also from landing strips usually employed by crop-spraying aircraft after rockets landed near air force facilities in northern Israel...

Israel Aircraft Industries (IAI) sources say the air force's recently delivered Heron 1 UAVs performed "beyond expectation" during the war, and demonstrated the full extent of the type's endurance while flying day and night missions over enemy territory. Heron air vehicles flew hundreds of sorties and amassed thousands of flight hours carrying 250kg (550lb) payloads comprising a variety of sensors. IAI says the medium-altitiude, long-endurance vehicle provided unmatched reliability, with no mission aborts.

Air force sources say the Heron was used mainly for electronic-intelligence missions over Lebanon. The service's IAI Searcher 2s also flew thousands of mission hours with excellent reliability, IAI says.

The air force also accumulated 15,000 flight hours with its Elbit Systems Hermes 450 UAVs in the conflict, flying round-the-clock missions with the type, which had previously recorded an annual usage rate of 10,000h. Three Hermes 450s crashed during the war: two as a result of technical problems and one due to operator error, with air force Lockheed Martin F-16 fighters having subsequently bombed the wreckage. Lebanese sources quoted in the Arab language press say the Hermes 450 was also used for precision attack missions. The Israeli air force declines to comment...

Sources say Hezbollah was ready for the UAVs and in many cases camouflaged rocket launchers, particularly with the use of special "carpets" that absorbed the sun's heat and radiated it at night to affect the efficiency of Israeli thermal sensors. "In many cases we had to detect the launch flash to determine the location of the launcher," says an air force source.

As well as highlighting the need for improved sensors, the campaign has prompted the Israeli air and defence forces to work together on an operating concept that will allow their UAVs to combine to provide a more detailed picture of an area of interest. "We will need improved optical payloads for day and night and a joint operational pattern between the Hermes 450 and the Skylark mini UAV," says one source. Another lesson learned is the need to equip tactical UAVs with countermeasures similar to those carried by manned aircraft.

Israel Wants to Jam Sats

Back in 2004, the U.S. Air Force suggested that they might be willing to mess with commercial satellites, if they were aiding an American foe. The idea drew howls from outside observers. And, for a while, it seemed destined for an extremely quiet corner of flyboy doctrine.

But now, the Israelis are picking up where their American counterparts left off, Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome reports. Fed up with Hezbollah's Al-Manar TV broadcasts -- which stayed on the air, despite repeated aerial and electronic attacks -- the Sabras are now talking publicly about "disrupt[ing] transmissions of enemy programming carried by commercial satellites."

“No doubt, we understand the power of the media, public opinion and mass psychology,” said [Maj. Gen. Ido] Nehushtan, who is responsible for IDF modernization planning. “Al-Manar is a liability, and we’re going to have to improve our ability to counter this threat...”

...the only way to ensure persistent, reliable, wide-area broadcast denial is through an anti-communication satellite system. Israel must develop the means to surgically target signals serving Hizbollah without damaging the spacecraft or disrupting operations of other customers serviced by the broadcast frequencies, he said...

[But] according to [an Israeli] executive, jamming a communications satellite is “like interfering with civil aviation. You can do it, but it’s against international law and you’ll be subject to all kinds of lawsuits.”

It is technologically impossible, he said, to selectively jam only those satellite signals that carry enemy broadcasts.

“Everything goes out as a single beam, and it is impossible to jam only those channels viewed as a threat,” the executive said. “If you make the decision to interfere with one [satellite signal], then you must be prepared to face the consequences of the collateral damage incurred to the many other legitimate users of the signal.”

Robert Ames, chief executive of the Satellite Users Interference Reduction Group... said it is relatively easy to jam a specific satellite transponder.

“Transponders are separated by frequency,” he said. “All you have to do is know the frequency which it operates on and then put up a signal that is stronger than the programming carrier of the satellite...

Satellite interference capabilities have been around since the mid-1970s, he added. “But if the Israelis are talking about technological challenges, I assume they are aiming for a capability that goes way beyond what our companies have experienced to date.”

Mystery Munition in Lebanon Strike

One of our insider correspondents points out this AP photograph from Lebanon and raises a red flag:

I am not saying the description is false, but I spent 20 years in the Air Force, much of that time doing targeting and mission planning for aircrews which involved a lot of post-strike analysis. This is by far, the lease [sic] amount of damage from an "air strike" I have ever seen. Even a Hellfire missile does more damage than this, remember the Predator strike on the car of some Al Qaeda operatives some time back? Total destruction of a soft vehicle like this. The only damage, other than minor body damage, I see is a missing sun roof. Thought you might want to add it to your list of possible fakes.

While inconsistent with the effects of large munitions such as satellite- and laser-guided bombs and even, yes, Hellfire missiles, this damage might represent a lucky hit by a helicopter-fired unguided rocket or a cluster bomb ... or something far more sophisticated.

Consider: The U.S. Air Force since the late 1990s has had a weapon that disperses guided submunitions (each packing the punch of a hand grenade), each bomb capable of taking out a company of tanks. It's called the Sensor Fuzed Weapon. Globalsecurity.org explains:

The Sensor Fuzed Weapon [SFW] is an unpowered, top attack, wide area, cluster munition, designed to achieve multiple kills per aircraft pass against enemy armor and support vehicles. After release, the TMD opens and dispenses the ten submunitions which are parachute stabilized. Each of the 10 BLU-108/B submunitions contains four armor-penetrating projectiles with infrared sensors to detect armored targets.

Defense Industry Daily appropriately calls the SFW "cans of whup-ass".

Israel is a known consumer of American Joint Direct Attack Munitions and a producer of laser-guided bombs. Has it gotten into the SFW game too, either with American weapons or its own similar design?

If so, I'm not surprised they've kept it under wraps. This is a cluster bomb we're talking about, the kind of weapon notorious for accidentally taking out civilians who might be milling around the battlefield.

--David Axe

UPDATED, 8/11/06: A source from inside the aviation industry says the mystery munition might be a Viper Strike.

Winning the Fight, Losing the War

Technology has enabled unprecedented persistence and precision for Israel forces, Aviation Week reports:

Unmanned aerial vehicles are providing the Israeli forces persistent surveillance with electro-optical/infrared and synthetic aperture radar. "Electro-optical sensors are integrated on the F-15s, F-16s and UAVs and they are the best we've ever had. The video is great. The video from the UAVs is particularly good because they are sitting 10,000-15,000 ft. directly over the target looking straight down with the minimum of atmospheric haze," says the former senior officer.

But is it enough?

Hezbollah rocket launchers have been a primary target for the Israeli air force's F-15s, F-16s and bevy of unmanned aircraft, which have all been fitted with electro-optical/infrared sensors to spot and engage those targets. And, while launchers are taken down daily, the rate of Hezbollah operations appears unaffected, and there are signs of potential escalation in the projectiles' lethality and range.

And even if Israeli airpower is achieving its operational objectives ... does it matter? William Arkin says no:

Israel has lost its current war against Hezbollah. Not because it hasn't achieved many of its military goals and isn't on the way to achieving more. Not because airpower and technology intrinsically are useless in fighting the "new" war.

Israel has lost in the court of public opinion, particularly in Europe. As I said yesterday, a certain ruthlessness in going after Hezbollah has challenged the aesthetic about conventional warfare and the level of damage deemed acceptable when a country is pursuing an unconventional foe.

--David Axe

Hez Surprises Israeli Military

"Terrorists are cowards," one Army sergeant told me in Iraq last year. "And they can't shoot worth @$%#!," he added.

Through all the troubles in Iraq, the U.S. military has taken some comfort in its absolute tactical superiority to insurgent forces. In a stand-up fight, U.S. troops always win.

But what if that changed?

Indications are that Hezbollah has achieved the unthinkable. It has combined the elusiveness and agility of a terrorist group with the fighting prowess of a modern army, according to The New York Times:

Hezbollah is a militia trained like an army and equipped like a state, and its fighters “are nothing like Hamas or the Palestinians,” said a soldier who just returned from Lebanon. “They are trained and highly qualified,” he said, equipped with flak jackets, night-vision goggles, good communications and sometimes Israeli uniforms and ammunition. “All of us were kind of surprised.”

This is bad. Real bad.

On the other hand, as fellow blogger and Iraq vet Geoff Edwards has pointed out: the bolder and more tactically proficient a group like Hezbollah gets, the more it looks and acts like an army and the easier it is to find, fix and destroy using precisely those weapons that, against an insurgent force, are nearly useless.

--David Axe

UPDATE, 4:37 EST: Now Reuters is reporting that Israel has shot down a Hezbollah drone:

Israeli aircraft shot down a suspected Hizbollah drone as it flew over Israeli territory on Aug. 7, the Israeli army said. "I can confirm that the air force destroyed a Hizbollah drone," an army spokesman said, but would not provide any other details, including where the drone was flying. Israel’s Channel One television reported that the drone was believed to be armed, but the army had no comment.

Is this another bit of ignorant reporting like the "drone hits ship" situation a couple weeks back? Or is this the latest example of Hezbollah's remarkable military sophistication?

If it's true, I wonder ... was this drone on a surveillance mission, or doing something more nefarious?

Israeli Missile Defense: Not Katyusha-Ready

Israelis are used to missile attacks; they've spent tons of cash on missile defense systems. So why have their interceptors been silent, as a thousand Katyushas have slammed into their soil? Victoria Samson, the Center for Defense Information's resident missile defense sage, has the answer: the Israeli systems are built to stop longer-range missiles -- ones that fly for hundreds of miles, like those Iraqi Scuds that fell on Tel Aviv during the first Gulf War, or the missiles Iran might one day nuke-equip.) The shorter-range projectiles that Hezbollah is firing are are too quick, and too mobile, for these interceptors to catch.

Israel has a two-tiered missile defense system. The first, the Arrow Weapon System, is to intercept ballistic missiles in their final phase of flight. It would do so by shooting the U.S.-developed Arrow II interceptor at a threat. Once the Israel-developed Green Pine Fire Control Radar, Citron Tree Fire Control Center, and Hazel Nut Tree Launcher Center have sent the interceptor near the target, the Arrow II would blow up, with the hope that the fragments from the blast would either destroy the target or knock it sufficiently off course so that it would no longer remain a threat. There are two Arrow batteries deployed. One covers the center of Israel from its position in Palmahim, while the other in Ein Shemer is supposed to defend Israel’s northern territory...

Israel also has an early version of the U.S. Patriot missile defense system. The Patriot Advanced Capability (PAC)-2 is designed to defend against ballistic missile targets in their terminal phase as well; also, it would provide defense via a blast-fragmentation warhead... The Patriot differs from the Arrow in that it aims at targets which are at lower altitudes.

[But] neither missile defense system has been used is because they are not designed to intercept short-range rockets. It is estimated that of the 13,000 or so rockets and missiles in Hezbollah’s arsenal, 11,000 of them are of the Katyusha type. These rockets have a short range – maybe up to nine miles or so – and a small warhead of roughly 40 pounds. Based on vintage Soviet technology, these rockets can be rolled out of a hiding place, shot, and rolled back in before any detection can be made. Their flight is over in seconds, making tracking difficult, much less shooting anything down. A system would have to be in exactly the right place to detect the missile once it is launched, then the defensive system would have to make a nearly instantaneous decision to respond, after which the interceptor would have to get to the target quickly enough to destroy it. It is an exceedingly difficult proposition when the flight times are as short as those launched by Hezbollah.

That's one of the reasons why Israel spent year pursuing a speed-of-light rocket defense, the Tactical High Energy Laser -- and why some folks are trying to re-introduce an updated version of the system to the Sabras.

But even an updated THEL will take years to get ready. In the short term, Israel's plan seems to be to clear out as much of southern Lebanon as possible, the Times notes.

Homes in southern Lebanon received taped phone calls in Arabic warning that they needed to evacuate because strikes would hit house by house. The recording ended by saying it came from the Israeli Army. The Israelis also used a radio station near the border to broadcast warnings into southern Lebanon for residents to leave.

The radio warning also stressed that any truck, including pickups, traveling south of the Litani River would be suspected of transporting weapons or rockets, and could therefore be a target.

(Big ups: TP)

"DOOD KATYUSHAZ R COMIN 2 U"

Israelis are already notorious for having their cell phones permanently attached to their ears. And that's before they got a hold of a new service by the start-up Cellact. The company is sending out text message warnings to Sabras of "a missile or bomb attack, shooting, or other emergency announcements," Globes reports.

The system enables key emergency services staff (police, firefighters, rescue teams, and stand-by details) to be paged from anywhere, including the field, by SMS through any licensed cellular phone. The service will be charged at NIS 0.20 [$.04] per message...

Cellact VP sales and marketing Gal Biran said, "After the shelling started, Cellact made a decision to harness its technology for the benefit of residents and companies in the north. SMS use meets two requirements in the event of an emergency; timely warning and distribution, and high reliability even in the event of heavy web traffic or poor reception. The system also provides ongoing communications when people are indoors or in air raid shelters, and can be used to easily relay information such as the opening hours of specific bank branches, or any important announcement that the public will not be able to see on notice boards because they are confined to their homes."

FEMA is working on a similar system here in the U.S., with a twist. FEMA's text messages will "tell you to get to a television or radio because something unfortunate has happened that you need to know about." Sounds like Cellact's straightforward alerts make a little more sense.

(Big ups: Sam)

Tech Undermining Israeli Army?

Israel has one of the most wired armies on the planet. Relying on overlapping networks of flying drones, hidden cameras, and unattended ground sensors, the Israeli Defense Forces have become a model for how information technology ought to be used in combat. Even the Americans rely on Israeli gear to help them keep tabs on battlefields.

But now, some Israeli security experts are beginning to wondering whether all that equipment is such a good idea, after all -- "whether misplaced reliance on high technology created the conditions that have plunged the nation into its first twin-fronted, gloves-off war against Islamic terror," Barbara Opall-Rome writes in this week's Defense News.

In interviews here, security experts and military officers not directly involved in the fighting say there are fundamental flaws in Israel’s budget-draining techno-centric defensive strategy, which is being funded at the expense of training and discipline throughout the lower echelons of active-duty and reserve forces.

It is intolerable, sources here assert, that Hamas commandos from Gaza and Hizbollah fighters in south Lebanon — within a 10-day period and despite early warnings — were allowed to sneak across borders fortified by a network of manned, unmanned and ground-based systems.

Hizbollah operatives found holes in the system of networked surveillance sensors, throwing doubt on Israel’s highly touted method of low-signature warfare. Particularly shocking was the penetration at Za’arit, which is monitored by an installation heralded as an example of the military’s ability to maintain virtual control over the northern border area.

Evading dozens of eyes trained on computer screens in the base’s combat information center, the operatives disabled at least one camera, penetrated a so-called dead zone of the border fence, and ambushed reservists dispatched to investigate alarms...

While all here appear to embrace the military’s corporate, almost sacrosanct pursuit of information superiority and standoff, remote-controlled capabilities, many are urging renewed emphasis on basic soldiering pending a more thorough validation of high-technology, networked operations...

One IDF brigadier general said... "With all due credit to technology and the capabilities it provides, we cannot neglect basic soldiering and discipline. But time and again, we’ve seen our training budget gutted to allow for full-bore investment in Tzayad [the IDF’s digital Army program, a rough equivalent of the U.S.' Future Combat Systems]. And now we’re seeing the results blowing up in our faces."

UPDATE 10:59 AM: Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post has a must-read diary of an Israeli F-16 pilot.

Hitting the target is expected, no misses are acceptable. There aren't any congratulations for a well-performed mission. Only a hammer on the head if something goes wrong. Personally, I think it's a healthy attitude; it causes the whole system to be less rash and hot on the trigger.

Israeli Military Site Gets Bloggy

Excellent. Defense Update, the long-standing supersite devoted to Israeli military gear, now has a blog. Here's a taste -- its take on the Hezbollah missile (not drone) attack:

Apparently, two missiles were launched toward the Israel Navy Ship (INS) Hanit (Spear), SAAR V class corvette patrolling the Lebanese coast 16 kilometers from the shore. The attack was a coordinated, simultaneous “high/low” attack - the first “high” missile passed over the Israeli ship. Missing the target, it continued flying, hitting and sinking a civilian Egyptian ship cruising 60 kilometers from the shore. The second missile followed a sea-skimming flight profile hitting the Israeli vessel at the stern, killing four sailors and setting the flight deck on fire and crippling the propulsion systems inside the hull.

The simultaneous attack was probably using two techniques as well, ensuring maximum chances of success. The first missiles was apparently used as a radar-guided “bait”. seducing the ship to deploy its defensive systems against it, focusing all the attention on the “obvious” threat while the second sea-skimming missile closing below. A supporting fact for this assumption is the fact that the first missile locked on the unfortunate Egyptian ship 44 kilometers away, as it was the next visible target in its flightpath. The second, missile could have been guided by radar or, more probably, Electro-optically. This method would require the launch of two types of missiles, a C-801/802 for the “high” profile and a C-701 TV guided missile for the “low” profile.

Israel's Aerial Blockade

Some of the same technologies that the U.S. military used to kill Abu Musab al-Zarqawi are playing a critical role in Israel's new campaign against Hezbollah. The Israeli air force has brought to bear strike aircraft armed with laser- and satellite guided bombs and toting sophisticated targeting pods. The mission: sever communications links to Lebanon -- depriving the terrorist network of foreign support -- and to ensure that captured Israeli soldiers are not sneaked out of the country.

Since Wednesday, Israeli warplanes have systematically bombed roads, bridges, television and radio stations and the runways at the Beirut airport. These attacks have effectively isolated Lebanon at the price of around 100 Lebanese deaths plus many injuries (see picture). In light of the swift and devastating nature of the air campaign, that death toll is surprisingly low. But then, considering that Hezbollah has no air defenses to speak of -- and that all the world is watching -- in this conflict the Israeli air force's greatest enemy is itself. It must achieve its operational goals with minimal civilian deaths to avoid turning world opinion against Israel.

That means accurate targeting and precision weapons. Most of the communications targets are static ones that Israel mapped out years ago, using aerial reconnaissance -- as well as signals and human intelligence. So figuring out what to bomb isn't hard. Hitting the targets accurately -- without civilian casualties -- is. And with airport terminals, bridges and highways teeming with local civilians and foreign tourists, the job is even tougher.

Fortunately for Israel, its air force is on the cutting edge of precision weapons technology. In the 1980s, Israeli firm Rafael pioneered small targeting pods for tactical warplanes. Today, the Rafael Litening family of pods -- containing day and night sensors, a laser designator and tracker and GPS -- equips Israeli F-16s and F-15s and U.S. aircraft such as Marine Corps F/A-18s.

Israeli aircrews probably approach from medium altitude, straight and level, using the cameras in their pods to zoom in on the target. They then designate it with a laser or determine its GPS coordinates -- or both. At the optimal distance and angle, they pickle the weapon, either an Israeli Aircraft Industries laser-guided bomb or a Boeing Joint Direction Attack Munition (JDAM), which Israel has procured in quantity since 1999.

To deliver these weapons, the Israeli air force calls upon the most capable tactical jet fleet in the Middle East. The inventory includes:

25 F-15I Ra'am (essentially F-15Es)
11 F-15D Akef
17 F-15C Akef
8 F-15B Baz
27 F-15A Baz
102 F-16I Soufa (advanced F-16 Block 50s, some still in delivery)
75 F-16D Brakeet
52 F-16C Barak
20 F-16B Netz
90 F-16A Netz

The F-15Is and F-16Is are the most advanced strike aircraft in the Middle East, with the possible exception of the Emirates' F-16E/Fs. But the only pictures of current air operations that I've seen have shown just F-16Cs and Ds, which makes sense. The early F-16s and F-15s are best suited for air-to-air missions and the F-15Is and F-16Is are long-range strike aircraft with conformal fuel tanks, likely being held in reserve for possible action against Iran, which reportedly has troops in Lebanon and supplied the drone that damaged an Israeli patrol boat and killed four sailors on Thursday.

--David Axe

UPDATE 6:59 PM: Stratfor says that "we are now in the period preceding major conventional operations. Israel is in the process of sealing the Lebanese coast. They have disrupted Lebanese telecommunications, although they have not completely collapsed the structure. Israeli aircraft are attacking Hezbollah's infrastructure and road system. In the meantime, Hezbollah, aware it is going to be hit hard, is in a use-it or-lose-it scenario, firing what projectiles it can into Israel."

The Israeli strategy appears to be designed to do two things. First, the Israelis are trying to prevent any supplies from entering Lebanon, including reinforcements. That is why they are attacking all coastal maritime facilities. Second, they are degrading the roads in Lebanon. That will keep reinforcements from reaching Hezbollah fighters engaged in the south. As important, it will prevent the withdrawal and redeployment of heavy equipment deployed by Hezbollah in the south, particularly their rockets, missiles and launchers. The Israelis are preparing the battlefield to prevent a Hezbollah retreat or maneuver.

Hezbollah's strategy has been imposed on it. It seems committed to standing and fighting. The rate of fire they are maintaining into Israel is clearly based on an expectation that Israel will be attacking. The rocketry guarantees the Israelis will attack. Hezbollah has been reported to have anti-tank and anti-air weapons. The Israelis will use airmobile tactics to surround and isolate Hezbollah concentrations, but in the end, they will have to go in, engage and defeat Hezbollah tactically. Hezbollah obviously knows this, but there is no sign of disintegration on its part. At the very least, Hezbollah is projecting an appetite for combat. Sources in Beirut, who have been reliable to this point, say Hezbollah has weapons that have not yet been seen, such as anti-aircraft missiles, and that these will be used shortly.

UPDATE 7:20 PM: Be sure to check out Tom Barnett's take on the crisis, too; this is Iran's "form of a pre-emptive war -- well-timed and well-placed," he says.

Lasers: Israel's Rocket Defense?

It was, perhaps, the most successful laser gun in the history of energy weapons. Now, it could just prove to be the key to Israel's defense. Maybe.

In the early part of this decade, the Israeli and American militaries worked with Northrop Grumman to build the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL. During tests at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, the chemical-powered energy weapon blasted out of the sky 28 Katyusha rockets -- just like the ones now assaulting Israel. Another 18 artillery shells and mortars were successfully zapped, as well. No other laser has ever come close to building up that kind of track record. (Here's a video of some of the shoot-downs.)

"All my career, I've been interested in fielding lasers," Jeff Sollee, a veteran Northrop laser scientist, told Defense Tech earlier this year. "THEL was as close as they come."

But generating the THEL's megawatts of laser power required hundreds of gallons of toxic chemicals — ethylene, nitrogen trifluoride. The weapons grew bulky; one proposed small-scale version was supposed to be kept in a mere eight cargo containers, each 40 feet long. A mobile THEL, on just a couple of trucks, proved to be too complex, and too expensive to contemplate. Worse, after a few shots, the lasers would have to be resupplied with a fresh batch of reactants. The logistics of hauling those toxins either through the air or across a battlefield made generals shiver. Israel eventually dropped out of the program. Then America did, too, turning its focus instead to solid-state, electric lasers.

Now, Northrop is pushing an upgraded THEL, under the name SkyGuard. The system is being pushed for airport defense, to keep jetliners safe from shoulder-fired missiles (kind of like this microwave-based missile-zapper from Raytheon I reported on last year).

But "Northrop executives have pitched [the] laser system in meetings with Israeli officials, including Defense Minister Amir Peretz," the Wall Street Journal reports. "Based on Israel's expression of interest in the laser technology, he said, Northrop has begun the process of applying for an export license."

SkyGuard is about a quarter the size of the original THEL, although not much smaller than the eight-container proposal. Northrop claims that the system's exhaust is mostly helium and steam, and requires a "keep out zone" of only 30 meters, Aerospace Daily notes. The price: maybe $200 million, plus $1,000 per shot.

Raytheon is also pitching Israel on air defense, too -- but not the microwave system. A few years back, the company began modifying its Phalanx 4,500 round-per-minute gun, originally designed for ship defense, to knock down mortars.

The WSJ says that "six batteries currently are deployed in Iraq." And from the reports I've heard, the Phalanxes are performing rather well, with several confirmed kills. Presumably, the systems could be shipped to Israel in fairly short order. The laser-based Skyguard is still very much on the drawing board, however. So Israel would still have to wait quite a while for its speed-of-light defense.

(Big ups: BB)

UPDATE 7/18/06 11:13 AM: According to a company spokesperson, Northrop thinks it can squeeze Skyguard "into the equivalent of three standard, 20-foot ISO containers" -- much less than the eight contemplated before.

Fire Rifle, Get Spy Pics

Israel has developed a slew of cool sensors for keeping tabs on terrorists -- grenades stuffed with cameras, softball-shaped sensors, mini-drones flown by a Dick Tracey-esque controller.

Defense Update spots an Israeli surveillance tool that I hadn't heard of before: a rifle-mounted, sensor-filled projectile called "Smart Arrow." Shoot it into a wall, and a "video camera is activated, sending live images from the target for up to seven hours."

The Smart Arrow comes with "an option for small explosive heads to assist the projectile embedding in the hardest surfaces," Defense Daily notes. "Once the tip of the Arrow is embedded, the body -- containing a small video camera -- pivots from a ball joint and hangs below the head. Then it begins to transmit live images from the surrounding area to a remote display and control unit."

This... allows the operator to view an "out of sight" area, such as an alley, before friendly ground troops overtake the position--a process that could be dangerous and time consuming, Kattan said.

"It can also be shot into the wall above a window then...[swivel down and] transmit what's going on inside," Gal said.

The display and control unit is small and highly portable and allows the operator to rotate the camera on the Smart Arrow while video is transmitted continuously. The LCD display screen is about six and a half inches in size and the unit can operate for about three hours continuously on a single charge.

The video transmission range is about 300 meters outdoors, and several hundred feet if, for example, the system was shot through a window and embedded in an interior wall or ceiling...

The Arrow can transmit the image to several receivers [and] has a 60-degree field of view with a frame rate of 25 per second and a resolution of 420 TV lines (tvl) in black and white and 320 tvl in color.

A Smart Arrow system includes two projectiles, one control unit and a charger in a rugged transport case.

Israelis: Talk to the Dog

Forbes is right, that "after a half-century of hostile borders and urban guerrilla warfare, Israel has emerged as the go-to country for antiterrorism technologies."

But, oy gevalt, the technologies they pick! They sound cool. But I wouldn't count on the Israeli Defense Forces (or any other military, for that matter) using most of 'em any time soon. Still, they're fun to read about. Here are two of the eight Forbes picks.

Dog Translator (Price: $10,000 and up)
Worn on a collar or mounted on a wall, the Dog Bio Security System translates barking into alarms for police or military. Bio-Sense Technologies spent two years capturing the sound waves of woofs and arfs, encoding them to be read by a digital signal processor. All dogs emit the same type of bark when they sense trouble. The device can distinguish this bark from a dog's "Hello." A consumer version costs $100. A high-end version costs tens of thousands of dollars but is still 25% the cost of video surveillance.

Liar Detector (Price: $200,000)
An airport security guard's greatest fear is letting through terrorists smart enough to stay off the watch list. Suspect Detection Systems came up with a machine to smoke them out. A passenger puts his passport on a scanner and one hand on a sensor. The machine starts asking increasingly tough questions in the official language of the passport-issuing country. Artificial intelligence software monitors physiological responses through the sensor. Agents pull aside those who fail the test. The company claims a 96% accuracy rate after two years of testing. Slated to go into use next year in Israeli and U.S. airports, as well as Gaza Strip checkpoints.

I wouldn't bet my last shekel on it. Here's some background on why lie detection systems, both new school and old, are so spotty.

THERE'S MORE: "For funny Israeli anti-terrorist ideas, it's still hard to beat the terrorist sniffing gerbils," Nick notes in the comments.

AND MORE: Gary Larson 1, Israelis 0. Check out this prescient Far Side cartoon.

Israeli Jets in Gaza Soundclash

Regular Defense Tech readers know that sonic weapons are slowly starting to be used by the American and Israeli militaries to disperse crowds with defeaning noise. But here's a tactic in the sound war that I hadn't heard of before: Israeli jets, letting off sonic booms over the Gaza strip.

The removal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip opened the way for the military to use air force jets to create dozens of sonic booms by breaking the sound barrier at low altitude, sending shockwaves across the territory...

Palestinians liken the sound to an earthquake or huge bomb. They describe the effect as being hit by a wall of air that is painful on the ears, sometimes causing nosebleeds and "leaving you shaking inside."

The Palestinian health ministry says the sonic booms have led to miscarriages and heart problems. The UN has demanded an end to the tactic, saying it causes panic attacks in children.

"Israel has long used sonic booms to rattle Palestinians in times of tension and violence," Ha'Aretz notes. "The booms can be mistaken for one of the frequent missile attacks aimed at militants or weapons factories."

Israeli kibutzniks living near Gaza are just as spooked by the booms as the Palestinians. “The children are scared because they don’t understand, but the adults are also afraid,” one tells Ynetnews. “We are trying to continue with the daily routine, but it is very unpleasant to live like this.”

The Guardian adds that the IDF "was forced to apologize after one of the sonic booms was unintentionally heard hundreds of kilometers inside Israel last week."

THERE'S MORE: "This has actually been a common tactic by the Israelis for a long while, mostly in the neighbouring country of Lebanon," one reader tells Xeni. "This includes mock divebombing runs, and sometimes even firing live ammo. There's also the danger of windows being blown out. And I must say, even if you're on the other end of a phone somewhere in another country, it still scares the shit out of you."

(Big ups: JQP)

Camera Shoot

"In the near future, a soldier who needs a quick look over the next hill will be able to aim his rifle skyward, fire a grenade-sized reconnaissance device and instantly receive imagery on his pocket computer," writes Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome.

"No special training or adaptation equipment is necessary" to fire the Firefly, from Israel's Rafael Armament Development Authority, or Israel Military Industry's Reconnaissance Rifle Grenade.

Grunts just fire the disposable "ballistic cameras" from "standard-issue M203 grenade launchers attached to M16 or other assault rifles," and then wait for the pictures to come back, 8 seconds and 600 meters later.

In this way, the ballisitc cameras a lot like the pint-sized drones which have become so popular among American company commanders in Iraq.

In 2002, the U.S. Army had 25 year-long Raven unmanned mini-planes; today, company and platoon chiefs are using about 800 in combat.

"Why the boom?" I asked in Wired a few months back.

Eyes in the sky keep soldiers from getting killed. "The way you used to get intel on the battlefield was you fought for it, sending your squad into a building, forcing your way in," says former Army captain Phillip Carter. Now company commanders can see around corners and over hills - a God's-eye perspective that once was the domain of generals, with their Predators, manned spy planes, and satellites.

The Ravens are simple to use -- one of the best-known operators is a cook. But, with no guidance system to operate, the ballistic cameras would be easier still: "point and shoot," to use a cliche. Which means the ability to see a battlezone from above could shift from a general to a captain to a buck private, rifle in hand.

Sand Bullets for Israeli Troops

First it was sonic ray guns. Now the Israeli military is "replacing its sometimes lethal rubber-coated steel pellets with compressed sand bullets," says the AP.

Rubber bullets have killed dozens of Palestinians in the past two decades. The new sand bullets were originally developed for close-quarter hostage rescue situations...

The new round, in which the head of the bullet is made from compressed sand and can be fired from a regular rifle, has already been used in the West Bank against Palestinians protesting against the separation barrier Israel is building, the army said.

The sand bullet, said to be extremely painful but less dangerous because it does not penetrate the skin, was developed and first used by Israel's Prisons Authority, the army said. The rubber bullets will be phased out.

THERE'S MORE: "I'm glad to see they are switching. It is LONG overdue," says Sid Heal, a long-time veteran L.A. Sheriff's department veteran who's considered one of the world's leading authorities on non-lethal weapons.

My guess is that the "sand" will provide sufficient mass to gain the stand-off distances they needed and obtained with their rubber coated steel pellets but with reduced ability to penetrate and imbed themselves into the body...

It sounds like a variation of the frangible rounds we've been experimenting with. It began with a round nicknamed the "Avon Round," that used Xerox powder and dental plaster. It remained intact until it struck an object -- and then it released excess kinetic energy by breaking into "dust." The breaching round got nicknamed the "Avon Round" because when it strikes a door lock, it pulverizes itself into harmless powder.

(Big ups: RC)

Israeli's Sonic Blaster

Rats. I meant to blog about Israel's new sonic weapon a week ago, when it first appeared in the local press. Now Drudge, of all people, has beaten me to the punch. Grrrr.

Israel is considering using an unusual new weapon against Jewish settlers who resist this summer's Gaza Strip evacuation - a device that emits penetrating bursts of sound that leaves targets reeling with dizziness and nausea.

Security forces could employ the weapon to overcome resistance without resorting to force, their paramount aim. But experts warn that the effects of prolonged exposure are unknown.

The army employed the new device, which it dubbed "The Scream," at a recent violent demonstration by Palestinians and Jewish sympathizers against Israel's West Bank separation barrier.

Protesters covered their ears and grabbed their heads, overcome by dizziness and nausea, after the vehicle-mounted device began sending out bursts of audible, but not loud, sound at intervals of about 10 seconds. An Associated Press photographer at the scene said that even after he covered his ears, he continued to hear the sound ringing in his head.

A military official said the device emits a special frequency that targets the inner ear. Exposure for several minutes at close range could cause auditory damage, but the noise is too intolerable for people to remain in the area for that long.

THERE'S MORE: As Tamir notes in the comments, Defense Update has a bit more on the blaster.

Buried Camera for Hidden Foes

Okay. Let's say you want to keep watch over a terrorist hide-out -- a close watch. You can't just hook a surveillance camera to the side of the building, or the belly of the cave. You've got to hide it somewhere. A new Israeli invention might be able to help.

The Mini Unattended Ground Imager (MUGI) is a 9-pound, jug-sized "multispectral, medium-range surveillance system designed to detect, identify and optionally target individuals on the move," according to Defense News. But the best part is that the device can be "buried underground, with only its periscope viewfinder protruding some four inches above ground. The finger-sized protrusion is then easily concealed by any number of camouflaged items or environmental debris and remains in place from 10 days to three months, depending on the operational life of the lithium batteries and external power packs.

Designed in response to Israeli military requirements and endorsed by... Israel’s Ministry of Defense, MUGI features a daytime color camera and nighttime infrared sensor for round-the-clock recognition of suspected terrorists or intruders.

During the day, MUGI has a range of some 3,000 meters, but at night is limited to about 1,000 meters. A mechanical device holding both cameras within the MUGI’s carbon fiber canister enables rotation and tilting, for horizontal and vertical scanning as well as zooming.

[In addition to being buried,] the MUGI also can be prepackaged in Hollywood-style props that don’t have to be buried, but are strategically positioned along streets, valleys or terraces in high-threat areas. Whether partially buried or disguised by props, the only element that must remain unobstructed is a small 1.2 inch-by-3.2 inch surveillance slit.

DICK TRACY CONTROLS FOR ISRAEL'S DRONES

"Israeli troops are now wearing gear that Dick Tracy would be proud of," the AP reports, "tiny video screens, worn on the wrist, that display video shot by unmanned airplanes."

Similar screens have been in use for close to a year in the Israeli military's attack helicopters, helping pilots identify and strike Palestinian targets within seconds. The technology, also used in tanks and armored vehicles, was a closely guarded secret until the company that developed it offered reporters a rare glimpse at the system this week...

The screen being field-tested by a limited number of foot soldiers is about 3 inches wide, and weighs just a few ounces. Code-named V-Rambo, it's attached to the wrist by a velcro strap. The LCD screens display color video beamed directly from drones in real time at 30 frames per second -- the same rate as broadcast TV.

Attack helicopters have been fitted with 5-inch screens. The Video Receiver systems also include small reception units that are installed on the vehicles and helicopters or carried in soldiers' vests.

The new technology is considered much more than a novelty.

Military drones have been used by Israel since the early 1980s. [The Israelis have also designed many of the drones used by American forces -- ed.] But until recently, the information they gathered was sent to a ground command center that interpreted it and then shared it with forces in the field. The Tadiran systems allow the information to be received instantly by the various forces, company officials said. The drones are still controlled by a ground command center, but the forces have the ability to guide the camera to meet their specific needs.

This real-time information has enabled Israel to perfect its ability to attack from the sky. During more than four years of fighting with the Palestinians, Israeli helicopter air strikes have killed dozens of combatants.

ISRAELIS GO DEEP TO STOP STRIKES

Since the start of the second Intifada, tunnels dug beneath the Gaza Strip have become an underground highway for Palestinian militants and their weapons. "Israeli security forces have uncovered more than 100 tunnels, some as long as 800 meters, as deep as 15 meters" in the last four years, Defense News' Barbara Opall-Rome notes.

Now -- even with signs of tensions cooling -- the Israelis are trying a blend of tactics and technology to try to close off the tunnels.

IDF will soon acquire... 100-ton vehicles known here as the Trencher to rapidly dig tunnels and ditches. Water-filled trenches, which seep into the soft, sandy soil of the Rafah border area, can collapse tunnels lying underneath.

Defense and industry experts say acoustic, seismic, thermal and other sensors promise to help as well.

One potential solution, by Herzliya, Israel-based Hadas Detection and Decoding, is intended to detect tunnels more than 20 meters underground. Known as the Underground Fence Solution or the UltraFence, and marketed by Rafael Armament Development Authority, the system analyzes acoustic noise and seismic changes to distinguish types of underground activities such as digging, walking or motorized movement...

The other system under evaluation uses underground seismic antennas. Developed by Electro-Optic Research and Development (EORD), a national laboratory affiliated with Israel's Technion University in Haifa, the system filters out noise to determine the precise nature and location of underground threats...

While many struggle to devise technological solutions, a senior operations officer suggested Israel might consider a Palestinian tactic.

Since late January, when the Palestine Authority assumed responsibility for security in Rafah, Palestinian security forces have uncovered and destroyed two arms-smuggling tunnels. In at least one of those instances, local security officials filled the tunnel with raw sewage.

"When we go in and destroy tunnels, it's sometimes only a matter of time until the debris is cleared and the tunnel is reopened for business. But they filled the tunnel with [excrement], which totally clogged all the air holes for breathing. That tunnel won't be used for years," an IDF officer said.