In the next three years, Israel's missile defence alignment will
be enhanced and realigned with three new layers of protection
filling in gaps in the existing two.
Current defences comprise the Arrow anti-ballistic missile system
as the upper tier and the MIM-104 Patriot Advanced Capability-2
(PAC-2) theatre defence system as a lower tier. The new five-tier
missile shield will evolve to encompass the Arrow 3 as the upper,
anti-ballistic missile layer, while David's Sling and Iron Cap will
enter service to offer two new anti-rocket layers lower down.
While the threat, ranging from improvised Palestinian Qassam
rockets to the Iranian Shahab 3 medium-range ballistic missile
(MRBM), is not new, it was only after the 2006 war in Lebanon that
Israel began considering missile defence as a key element in its
defence doctrine.
More than 4,200 rockets rained on the Israeli rear in the 33 days
of the country's war with the Lebanese Shi'ite militia, Hizbullah,
graphically demonstrating Israel's vulnerability to attacks on its
population centres and the Israel Defence Force's (IDF's) limited
capability to defend against rocket fire.
"There is no other country in the world threatened with such a vast
variety of rockets and missiles," Uzi Rubin, former director of
Israel's Missile Defence Organisation (IMDO), tells Jane's. "There
isn't a single spot in the country free of rocket or missile
threat."
So dire is the perceived need to develop protection against rockets
and missiles that Defence Minister Ehud Barak has tied it to his
political platform as a precondition of future progress in the
peace process with the Palestinians.
He believes that without a convincing missile shield, any
withdrawal from Palestinian territory in the West Bank will expose
central Israel - where most of the country's population and
strategic sites are located - to increased rocket attacks. To
underline the argument, he points to the withdrawal of Israeli
forces from the Gaza Strip in 2005, which has brought daily rocket
attacks on surrounding Israeli towns ever since.
As such, Barak claims that until the appropriate technology is
fielded, occupation is the only means to prevent launches. "In
several years, Israel will have a 90 per cent protection against
any attempt to launch rockets or missiles at it," he recently
declared. "With time, this percentage will become even
higher."
Although missiles were introduced into the Middle East some 40
years ago, it is only in the last 20 years that they have become
the main threat to Israel.
Image: A battery of Qassam missile launchers uncovered by the IDF.
Planners assert that occupation is currently the only way to stop
the launches. (Israel Defence Force)
http://www.janes.com/news/defence/idr/idr071213_1_n.shtml
A case study from our 'Mexican' friends...can help with our BMD
plans... 
