By Vic Rosenthal, ABU YEHUDAH

This happened in September:

TEL AVIV, Israel – U.S. and Israeli officers broke ground in Israel on Monday for a permanent U.S. Army base that will house dozens of U.S. soldiers, operating under the American flag, and charged with the mission of defending against rocket and missile attack.

The American base, officers in Israel say, will be an independent facility co-located at the Israel Defense Forces Air Defense School in southern Israel, near the desert capital of Beersheba. Once completed, the base will house U.S. operational systems to identify and intercept a spectrum of aerial threats, along with barracks, recreational and other facilities required to support several dozen American air defenders. …

According to [IAF Brig. Gen. Tzvika] Haimovich, the co-located, permanent U.S. presence will enhance Israel’s ability to detect and defend against the growing rocket and missile threat. “The purpose of their presence is not for training or for exercises, but rather as part of a joint Israeli and American effort to sustain and enhance our defensive capabilities.” …

In his briefing to reporters, Haimovich said the IDF has been working with its U.S. counterparts for nearly two years to establish the new facility. He emphasized that the American presence “would not hamper the IDF‘s ability to act independently against any threat to the security of the State of Israel.”

Israel has had an American X-band radar installation on Har Keren, not far from the location of the new “base,” for nine years. The unit, which is operated and guarded by US personnel, is off-limits to Israelis. The IDF does not have direct access to the data it produces, which is first sent to California where it is analyzed. Of course, the Americans have promised to let Israel know right away about any incoming missiles! The radar is technically capable of extremely high resolution, able to track ballistic missiles in their “terminal” phase, when they are descending. But it also has the ability to track missiles in their launch phase — or aircraft taking off. More about this later.

Haimovich’s statement implied that the new facility will add new “operational systems” to “identify and intercept” threats in addition to providing housing and other facilities for the US personnel who operate them. But the next day, the US European Command, which operates the radar, claimed that there was nothing new about it except the American flag. The “base” was no more than a new barracks for the radar operators and guards.

But back to the radar itself. When it was installed some Israeli defense officials complained that it was too good, able to see even a small drone taking off anywhere in Israel. Israel would have no secrets from its powerful partner. An unnamed Israeli official referred to it as “golden handcuffs.” In 2012, Time Magazine noted that

The workaday reality of …read more

Source:: Israpundit

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