Israeli Citizens Want Anti-Missile Shield

On Wednesday, the people of a small town near the Gaza Strip sued the Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and the Defense Minister Ehud Barak for constructing a missile-defense system to protect them against the rocket attacks launched by the Hezbollah militants. The 20,000 inhabitants of Sderot demand a mothballed Nautilus system, costing approximately 300 million US dollars, to suppress the fire coming from the Gaza Strip.

Previously the system was to be implemented by the US and Israeli military to shoot down Katyusha rockets launched by Hezbollah from Lebanon, however the cost of the project was proven to be to high and was eventually abandoned in 2005.

According to Israeli lawyer Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, Nautilus tests "shot down Katyushas, Quassams, and Bombs with 100 percent success. Israel could bring the system to Sderot and use it to protect the people there from Qassam rockets." Since the year 2000, Hezbollah militants launched more than 6,500 Qassams from the Gaza Strip towards the Israeli cities along the border, killing fourteen people amongst whom eleven Israelis, two Palestinians and a Chinese citizen working in Israel.

Nonetheless, except for the fact that it will cost a ton of money to implement the system, Nautilus also requires high amounts of toxic chemicals to generate the required power, it cannot fire a second shot instantaneously and the infrared laser beam may have some trouble shooting down the missile if the sky is cloudy. It is a massive investment if you consider that Sderot is not the only town along the border. Two years ago, an Israeli military analyst said that "Protecting the whole border of Israel would require a few dozen of these systems," which might not even be effective in case of an overwhelming attack.

The archive suggests that, in fact, the Nautilus system was not even tested on Quassam rockets, which are short-ranged and may reach the target in less than 10 seconds after being launched, not enough time even to get a look, not to talk about intercepting them.

Alternatively, the Northrop Grumman is developing an improved anti-missile system based on the Nautilus, called Sky-Guard which is supposed to have higher intercepting capabilities and is a lot smaller than the Nautilus. Another anti-missile system developed by the Israeli military shoots large bullets to disable missiles in mid flight, the so-called 'Iron Dome'.

All these anti-missile systems have the capability of shooting down only medium-range rockets, while Qassams can easily pass through the defense shield.



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