120 US troops deploy to Israel to set up and operate ‘X-band radar’ ahead of possible strike against Iran

TEL AVIV - A radar system, which the United States agreed in July to deploy in Israel as Tel Aviv mulls attacking Iran, is to go operational in mid-December, army radio reported on Saturday.

The US military technicians who will operate the system are currently carrying out the final tests, the radio said.

The radar system, which has a range of more than 2,000 kilometres (1,250 miles), has been installed in the Negev desert in southern Israel.

Some 120 US troops have been deployed to Israel to set up and operate the system, public radio reported in late September.

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates agreed to the deployment after Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak and army chief Lieutenant General Gabi Ashkenazi made separate visits to Washington in July to discuss Iran.

Israel and the US accuse Iran of seeking to develop a nuclear warhead under cover of its civilian nuclear programme, although only Israel actually has nuclear weapons in the region.

The two governments' allegations are expected to top the agenda of outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's White House talks with US President George W. Bush on Monday.

"The idea here is to help Israel create a layered missile defence capability to protect it from all sorts of threats in the region, near and far," a senior Pentagon official said in late July, although it is Washington and Tel Aviv who have been making war threats in the region.

The so-called X-band radar system, also known as an AN/TPY2, is a powerful phased array radar that is designed to track ballistic missiles through space and provide ground-based missiles with the targeting data needed to intercept them.

The United States deployed a similar system to Japan in 2006 in response to a North Korean missile test. It plans to install a larger one in the Czech Republic.

The Pentagon was scheduled to deploy the radar to Israel in the autumn of 2009 for a joint exercise but moved it up a year following the talks in Washington earlier this year.

The system includes two massive radar antennae which have been under construction near the Dimona nuclear plant in the Negev.

The Maariv newspaper reported on October 5 that the two 400-metre-high (1,300 foot) masts being erected near the top-secret military plant, where Israel has developed its nuclear arsenal, would be the largest in the region.

Data from the radar will be provided to Israel's missile defence system, but it will remain owned and operated by the US military.

Iran, which boasts a number of ballistic missiles, repeatedly warned that it would defend itself against any US or Israeli aggression.

Israel on Wednesday displayed air power it could use to attack Iran.

Israeli pilots declined to comment on reports earlier this year that they had already conducted a training mission to practise for a strike at Iranian sites.

Source >  Middle East Online | nov 22

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