A Gift from America to Israel

Israel

Thanks to a gift of heavy coin from the U.S. Treasury, Israel is deploying a new high tech missile defense sensor. America helped develop the High Availability Aerostat System joint project based on systems used along our southern border.

Israel more secure

Citizens in Israel are feeling a lot more secure with the new border security system in place. They call the craft an “aerostat” because calling them blimps makes everyone snicker. They would be right at home with “Goodyear” painted across the side, though.

Israel’s Missile Defense Organization did the research and development work on a new radar system to go with it, starting with one that the American Missile Defense Agency had been playing with for a while.

HAAS is basically a blimp tied to the ground that carries a whole bunch of cutting edge “long-range radar developed almost entirely from annual Foreign Military Financing funds provided to Israel from the US.”

They already wrapped up testing and hauled out the helium. “this week’s inflation of the aerostat means the program is on track to declare initial operational capability before the end of the year.”

The plan is to get the first HAAS system floating high above northern Israel by early January. It’s desperately needed to help “cope with the growing threat of Iranian-made cruise missiles and armed drones.”

The Ayatollah has been getting bolder with every sign of weakness Joe Biden waves under his nose. After that they plan to roll out more, how many more and where is top secret.

It’s been tried before

This isn’t the first time Israel experimented with the aerostat concept. The blimps may be the same but the gear hanging off the bottom is light years from the basic radar used before.

The new equipment is tethered at a high altitude with radar “designed to detect threats from far distances and supply accurate information on incoming threats.”

They don’t want to talk too much about specifics but they seem to be using some of the same technology employed by American F-35 fighter jets. The data collected by the sensors is beamed to Israel Military “defensive options, such as the Iron Dome or David’s Sling systems.”

Israel

AI driven real time targeting and fire control coordination in action has been described as “phenomenal.” They can practically shoot each single bee in a swarm. They can’t wait to try it out against an Iranian drone.

Blimps have been frowned on in military circles ever since an American team bungled the ground control for the JLENS aerostat in 2015. It snapped the rope and “floated for nearly 100 miles through Maryland and Pennsylvania.” They recovered the errant aerostat but not before dangling cords “knocked out power lines for thousands of residents.”

Jokes aside, the concept works like a charm. Missile defense expert Tom Karako sums up the Israel built version with a smile, “It’s high time for the policy and defense community to grow up and quit making JLENS jokes and memes. Try to fight the curvature of the earth and you’ll lose every time.”