When Gaza terrorists go low, the IDF goes high-tech
Posted on
A new weapon in the war against radical terrorism has been deployed in the West Bank – lasers.
No, this isn't the stuff of sci-fi fantasy, but a practical response to a recent wave of low-tech terrorist attacks floating over the Gaza boarder. Since last March, Israeli families have had to live in fear of incendiary kites and balloons reducing their homes to cinders, with literally hundreds of these simple, but dangerous, weapons indiscriminately launched into civilian neighbourhoods on a regular basis. Now the IDF is fighting back.
Bolstering the usual defensive line along the border fence is a new force, a new kind of weapon in the war against terror. A system of cutting-edge lasers and sensors designed to detect incendiary devices and neutralize them mid-air before they have a chance to harm anyone. Good news for Israeli families who have lived the past several months under a perpetual cloud of uncertainty and fear!
The new defence system is actually the combination of two separate systems. The first is the Sky Spotter, a high-tech visualization and target-acquisition system. This automated watch dog is what the military calls a "Passive Early Warning” system. It scans the sky in real time using multi-spectral investigative sensors to identify and locate possible threats. The system then plots their most likely course given their speed, altitude, and the prevailing conditions and estimates an impact area.
The IDF has been using the Sky Spotter to coordinate with local fire departments and mobilize response teams to the likely location of kite and balloon strikes before they touch down. The spectacular response time made possible by this technology is one of the reasons the damage done by these terrorists attacks has been so successfully contained.
But, wouldn't it be better to not have to mobilize the fire department at all? That's where the second piece of technology comes into play - Rafael’s Drone Dome.
Rafael is a high-tech military contractor that has already been working with the IDF to develop countermeasures for threats such as aerial drones and roadside improvised explosives. Their system uses a directed, high-intensity laser to super heat these devices and safely deactivate them without placing a soldier or anyone else at risk.
The new combined system utilizes the tracking ability of the Sky Spotter to locate incoming incendiary kites and the Drone Dome's high-powered laser to obliterate the devices in mid-air. With the incendiary components ignited in the air, they don't have a chance to spread on the ground, resulting in much smaller (often non-existent) fires for ground teams to deal with.
While this technology is an encouraging advance for the safety of Israeli citizens, it is a technology that should never have been necessary in the first place. Until Gaza recognizes the counter-productive and futile nature of such attacks, and denounces the radical elements responsible, meaningful peace will continue to be unattainable in the West Bank.
