By Stan Goodenough
Aug 24, 2007
Israeli news sources Thursday and Friday indicated serious IDF efforts are underway to get ready for a massive Syrian missile attack.
The reports gave another push to the up-again, down-again threat of war breaking out with Syria in the near future.
According to Ynetnews Thursday, Israel is upgrading its US-built Patriot anti-missile missile system from the four-rockets-per-launcher PAC-2 to the 16-rockets-per-launcher PAC-3.
Apart from intercepting the long-distance surface-to-surface missiles Syria and Lebanon's Hizb'allah are known to have in their arsenals, the advanced Patriot can also take out enemy aircraft.
In its Friday online edition, The Jerusalem Post headlined its top story "Fearing Syrian missile onslaught, IDF boosts Arrow defenses in North."
The paper said that, because Israel's future are expected to be characterized by unprecedented missile barrages, the military is modifying its missile defense doctrine, and has changed its deployment of the Arrow anti-missile system in the north of the country.
While neither report communicated a sense of impending war, a conflict with Syria is widely regarded as inevitable.
Damascus dictator Bashar el-Assad - who has recently increased his rhetoric against Israel's sovereignty on the Golan Heights - appears to be spoling for a fight.
The Post reminded its readers that Israeli and American forces have been holding joint exercises to ensure improved coordination between the two countries. As it did with its Patriot batteries in the First Gulf War, the US is expected to provide Israel with missile defense systems should hostilities with Syria or other Arab/Muslim states appear unavoidable.
Veteran soldiers who operated the Patriot anti-missile systems have been briefing younger soldiers about what it's like to face incoming rockets.
"We need to prepare them mentally for the barrages," an officer told the paper. "We need to train with the systems to make sure that they are operational and to prepare the soldiers for the possibility that they will be facing dozens of missiles heading toward Israel."
Syria is believed to have non-conventional warheads attached, or ready to attach, to its long-range missile delivery system.
Its rockets can reportedly reach all of Israel's population centers.