July 30, 2004
THE FIGHTING 51ST:
Successful missile test heralds new strategic superiority for Israel (AFP, Jul 30, 2004)
Israel's successful test-firing of its Arrow II anti-missile missile in the United States goes well beyond technological prowess as it grants the Jewish state a new strategic and defensive asset in the volatile Mideast region, media and officials said Friday."Bull's eye", "Arrow strikes" trumpeted the headlines in the mass-circulation dailies Yediot Aharonot and Maariv, with both papers highlighting that during this seventh successful test a real Scud missile rather a substitute Black Sparrow had been used.
Some six minutes after the 11-meter-long (38 feet), seven-ton Scud was launched at a height of dozens of kilometers above the Pacific Ocean, it was intercepted and destroyed by the Arrow II, or Hetz in Hebrew, which traveled nine times faster than the speed of sound, the papers said.
The test was carried out jointly with the US Missile Defense Agency at the Point Magu Sea Range in California.
Kind of gilding the lilly, no?
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 30, 2004 11:20 AM
I saw a headline ion Slate that said the right number of Strategic Defense Missiles in the No Ko theater was zero, but I did not bother to read the article. I understand that the Japanese are in talks with the israelis to buy the Arrow system.
Posted by: Robert Schwartz at July 30, 2004 2:20 PMSo, why should we be siding with the Palestinians? Do you think Europe will get any of these missiles?
Posted by: Robert Duquette at July 30, 2004 10:32 PM