Israel to deploy four more 'Iron Dome' anti-rocket devices

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Israel to deploy four more 'Iron Dome' anti-rocket devices

JERUSALEM (AFP) -- Israel is planning to deploy four more batteries of its " Iron

Dome " short-range missile defense system, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said on

Sunday.

Speaking on military radio, Barak said: " With the financial help of the

Americans, we hope to equip ourselves with four new 'Iron Dome' batteries so we

will have six in operation in the next two years. "

He added that a second battery would soon be operational on the Israeli border

with the Gaza Strip.

The first battery of the unique multi-million dollar system came into operation

a week ago, stationed outside the southern city of Beersheba, in the Negev

desert, just days after it was hit by several Grad rockets fired from the Gaza

Strip amid a rise in tensions since the 16 March killing of two Hamas fighters

deep in Gaza.

The system, the first of its kind in the world and still at the experimental

stage, is not yet able to provide complete protection against the hundreds of

rockets fired from Gaza into southern Israel, officials have said.

The system, developed by Israel's Advanced Defense Systems with the help

of US funding, is designed to intercept rockets and artillery shells fired from

a range of between four and 70 kilometers.

Each battery comprises detection and tracking radar, state-of-the-art fire

control software and three launchers, each with 20 interceptor missiles,

military sources said.

Militants in Gaza and Lebanon's Hezbollah militia have fired thousands of

projectiles at Israel in the past.

According to plans, the system will first be deployed along the border of the

Hamas-run Gaza Strip, from where militants fired a daily barrage of improvised

rockets. Some officials said Israel's decision to launch a devastating 22-day

offensive on the coastal enclave in December 2008 sought to put an end to

projectile fire.

In the violence, 1,400 Gaza residents were killed, more than half of them

civilians, 5,000 were wounded and some 6,000 homes destroyed.

Lebanon border

Following installation along the Gaza-Israel border, officials say the 'Iron

Dome' will then be deployed along Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Hezbollah militants fired some 4,000 rockets into northern Israel during a 2006

war. Officials said it was that experience which prompted the development of

Iron Dome.

Israeli strikes on southern Lebanon during the war killed more than 1,200

Lebanese, the majority of which were civilians. An estimated 120 Israeli

soldiers and 43 civilians were killed during the operation.

Israel believes Hezbollah now has an arsenal of some 40,000 rockets.

But a complete deployment is expected to take several years.

In May last year, US President Barack Obama asked Congress to give Israel 205

million dollars to develop the system, on top of the annual three billion

dollars Israel receives from Washington.

Iron Dome will join the Arrow long-range ballistic missile defense system in an

ambitious multi-layered program to protect Israeli cities from rockets and

missiles fired from Lebanon, the Gaza Strip, Syria and Iran.

A third system, known as 's Sling, is currently being developed with the

aim of countering medium-range missiles.