Free Republic

VANDENBERG AFB -- A symbol of Operation Desert Storm will fly from Vandenberg Air Force Base today as the U.S. military aims to learn more about Scud missiles. The Scud missile will launch between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. today, according to Maj. Stacee Bako, a Vandenberg Air Force Base spokeswoman. Officials didn't announce the launch date until Wednesday afternoon. The test is one of two Scud missile launches planned by the Missile Defense Agency before the end of the year under a $13 million program dubbed "Operation Blue Velvet." The weapon, similar to those fired by Iraq during Operation...

PALMACHIM AIR FORCE BASE, Israel — Israel has deployed an operational missile defense and is ready to use it to protect Tel Aviv and other major population centers if they come under fire from Iraq's arsenal of Scud missiles. Known as the Arrow, the system is designed to avoid the pitfalls of the American Patriot system, which Israelis say had little success in stopping Iraq's Scud missile attacks during the 1991 Persian Gulf war. The program, which will cost more than $2 billion, is partly financed by the United States. One battery is already deployed here, and when the final...

LONDON, Sept 27 (AFP) - Israel special forces are operating inside western Iraq, pinpointing locations where Iraqi missile lauchers might be positioned, the Jane's Foreign Report newsletter said in its latest issue, received Friday. The newsletter said the elite Sayeret Matkal commando unit was ordered into Iraq "to find and identify places used by, or likely to be used by, Iraqi Scud missile launchers." "Our information is that neither Israel nor the United States have a clue about what, if anything, Saddam Hussein is hiding," the newsletter said, referring to the Iraqi leader. "It was this ignorance that persuaded...

Scud Hunting with Delta Force and the Special Air Service (SAS)By Thomas B. Hunter During the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), Saddam Hussein launched approximately 350 ballistic missiles against Iran. These attacks included a large number of R-17 single-stage missiles from a stockpile of 650 purchased from the Soviet Union. The R-17, as originally designed, had a maximum range of 300 km and was capable of carrying either a 2,000 lb. conventional or 100 kiloton nuclear warhead. In time, however, Iraqi engineers were ordered to develop a weapon capable of striking deeper into Iranian territory. To this end, designers made use of...

A possible Iraqi missile strike has citizens feeling on edge A senior Iraqi official told Israel Friday to expect missile attacks in the event of a US-led war to unseat Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, amid growing apprehension in the Jewish state about the government’s readiness for such an eventuality. “Israel will suffer a profound and an unforgettable strike if it interferes in the (US-led) war (against Iraq),” Iraqi Trade Minister Mohammed Mahdi Saleh told the Al-Khaleej daily. Israel’s army chief, Lieutenant General Moshe Yaalon, said this week that the US wanted Israel to stay out of any military operation against...

<p>WASHINGTON (AP) --  The Bush administration has quietly imposed sanctions on a North Korean company for selling Scud missile parts to Yemen. It plans no penalties against Yemen, an ally in the U.S.-led war on terrorism.</p> <p>The administration decided on the penalties Aug. 16, a State Department official said Thursday night. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, identified the company as Changgwang Sinyong Corp.</p>

Early this month, Major-General Amos Yaron, director-general of Israel's Defence Ministry, flew in secretly twice to meet his counterparts in New Delhi. Yaron's visits were in response to urgent Indian requests for a spy satellite and an anti-missile system. Yaron, says a recent issue of Jane's Foreign Report, had to turn down both requests. Jane's reported that India wanted to "buy or borrow" Israel's newly-launched Ofek-5 spy satellite. Yaron said Israel needed to keep it on an Iran-Syria-Iraq orbit, that it could not, even temporarily, be sent over Kashmir at the present time — as New Delhi wanted. Yaron also...

By Steve Rodan, JDW Correspondent, Tel Aviv, and Andrew Koch, JDW Washington Bureau Chief Syria is preparing to begin serial production of an extended-range version of its 'Scud-C' short-range ballistic missile, according to US and Israeli defence officials. The officials said Syria has completed preparations for the production of the extended-range missile, including work on an assembly line. Israeli defence officials said Syria could produce as many as 30 missiles a year, approximately equal to that of the current 'Scud-C' production. "They have either begun production or are about to begin production," one Israeli official told JDW. "So far, the...