December 29, 2003
AXIS OF GOOD FILES:
Poland, Israel Sign Missile Deal (MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, December 29, 2003, Associated Press Writer)
Poland and Israel on Monday signed a deal worth some $350 million over the next 10 years to provide the Polish army with some 2,700 state-of-the-art Israeli anti-tank missiles.The "Spike'' missiles, to be delivered between 2004 and 2013, will be produced under license from the state-owned Israeli Rafael arms corporation by Mesko, a Polish firm. Mesko will use components from Rafael, which will supply an initial batch of Israeli-made missiles next year.
The Spike is optically guided, can be shoulder-fired or mounted on vehicles or helicopters, and has a range of 4,000 yards, according to Rafael's Web site.
It will replace the Soviet-era missiles still in use by the Polish military.
The new missile program is part of a wider effort to bring the country's armed forces up to the standards of NATO, which Poland joined in 1999.
Monday's signing ceremony in Skarzysko Kamienna, 90 miles south of Warsaw, was attended by Polish Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski and Israeli Defense Ministry director Amos Yaron.
Israel gets it. Posted by Orrin Judd at December 29, 2003 5:44 PM
This is kind of funny, because the greatest likelyhood is that these advanced missiles, if ever used by Poland, will be fired at decades old Soviet-era tanks, or some souped up modern version of same, such as China's latest.
Those targets are barely worthy of the technology and quality manufacture the missiles represent.
You call that funny? What's really hilarious is that those missiles might end up somewhere the Israelis would rather they not.
http://www.haaretzdaily.com/hasen/spages/377715.html
Posted by: Barry Meislin at December 30, 2003 10:10 AM