Israel Supports American Security
© David Burton 2018
Israel Supports American Security© David Burton 2018 |
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“The David’s Sling Weapon System forms a crucial element of Israel’s multi-tier layered missile defense architecture to provide mid-tier regional missile defense. David’s Sling provides terminal-phase hit-to-kill defense against tactical ballistic missiles, medium- to long-range rockets, enemy planes, drones and cruise missiles, including Scud missiles. “Declared fully operational in 2017, David’s Sling was co-developed by Raytheon and Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems. In addition to partnering on the system’s Stunner interceptor, Raytheon produces the system’s missile firing units.” (Ref. 6) "Israel and the United States work together to develop sophisticated military technology, such as the David's Sling counter-rocket and Arrow missile defense systems, which may soon be ready for export to other U.S. allies.” (Ref. 7) Raytheon Company has teamed with Israel’s Rafael company to market the tested and proven Iron Dome anti-missile system in the United States. In April 2016, the Iron Dome successfully shot down a UAV during a test firing in the United States, the system's first trial on foreign soil. “Israel has . . . emerged as an important niche defense supplier to the U.S. military, with sales growing from $300 million per year before September 11 to $1.1 billion in 2006, due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel's military research and development complex has pioneered many cutting-edge technologies that are transforming the face of modern war, including cyberweapons, unmanned vehicles (such as land robots and aerial drones), sensors and electronic warfare systems, and advanced defenses for military vehicles.” (Ref. 7) Intelligence Israel has been a major contributor to helping “the United States deal with traditional security threats. The two countries share intelligence on terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and Middle Eastern politics. Israel's military experiences have shaped the United States' approach to counterterrorism and homeland security.” (Ref. 7) Israel supports America’s security needs with more than just advanced and sophisticated hardware. “Israel's intelligence and insights into Middle Eastern affairs is ‘unparalleled’ throughout the world and ‘benefits the US in all sorts of ways.’ For decades, intelligence analysts have regarded Israel's Unit 8200 as one of the most elite in the world. The unit functions similarly to the US National Security Agency, and the two work closely together. “In 2010, for example, the US and Israel collaborated on one of the most-sophisticated malware systems ever created, Stuxnet, to infiltrate Iran's cyber infrastructure and slow progress towards nuclear weapons without firing a shot. In missile defense as well, US and Israel have worked together to field some of the most effective systems around.” (Ref. 8) With respect to the battle against ISIS, it was known as far back as 2014 that Israel had “provided satellite imagery and other intelligence in support of the U.S.-led aerial campaign against Islamic State in Iraq . . . “Once ‘scrubbed’ of evidence of its Israeli origin, the information {was often} shared by Washington with Arab and Turkish allies . . . - - - “. . . Israeli spy satellites, overflying Iraq at angles and frequencies unavailable from U.S. satellites, had provided images that allowed the Pentagon to ‘fill out its information and get a better battle damage assessments’ after strikes on Islamic State targets. “Israel had also shared information gleaned from international travel databases about Western citizens suspected of joining the insurgents, who could be potential recruits for future attacks in their native countries.” (Ref. 9) “One of the most significant contributions Israel has made to U.S. security has been shared intelligence. The truth is the United States has little alternative but to depend on Israel for much of its Middle Eastern human intelligence because the CIA's capability has diminished. In post-revolutionary Iran, the CIA no longer had a presence and the CIA's Lebanon station was virtually wiped out in the 1983 bombing of the U.S. embassy in Beirut. The United States relies on the Mossad and other Israeli intelligence agencies for information about terrorism, radical Islamic movements, weapons proliferation and other Middle East-related events. “For example, Israel supplied the United States with valuable intelligence about Soviet fighters and their avionics. This occurred {in} 1989 after a Syrian pilot defected in an advanced model of a MIG-23 and American officials were allowed to examine the plane. - - - “In 2010, Iran announced that uranium enrichment at Natanz had stopped several times because of a series of technical problems. . . In June, anti-virus experts discovered a sophisticated computer worm dubbed ‘Stuxnet,’ which . . . {targeted} Siemens industrial software and equipment used by Iran to control centrifuges used to enrich uranium at its Natanz plant. {It was} subsequently reported that Stuxnet {was} part of a U.S. and Israeli intelligence operation called ‘Operation Olympic Games,’ initiated by President George W. Bush and expanded under President Barack Obama. - - - “Although Stuxnet was discovered, it is believed that the United States, Israel and others continue to use cyberwarfare in an effort to sabotage Iran’s nuclear program. “U.S. diplomats reported in 2014 that Israel {had} been assisting in the fight against the Islamic State (ISIS) by providing the United States with intelligence information, including lists of Westerners who {had} joined ISIS. Israel . . . also provided vital intelligence in the form of drones flying over ISIS territory. This information {was} then used to carry out air strikes and plan coordinated attacks. “In 2017, it was disclosed that {Israel had} penetrated a cell of bombmakers in Syria. Israel passed on information indicating ISIS had learned to make explosives resembling laptop computer batteries, which can evade detection by airport X-ray machines and other screening devices. The information prompted the United States to ban large electronic devices in carry-on luggage on flights from 10 airports in eight Muslim-majority countries to the United States and Britain. President Trump is believed to have revealed the intelligence to Russian foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, and the ambassador to the United States, Sergey I. Kislyak during a meeting the Oval Office in May 2017.” (Ref. 10) “It’s well known today that Israeli and U.S. intelligence agencies often cooperate closely, and that Jerusalem routinely provides Washington with important and hard-to-obtain information. Less well known is that this cooperation dates back to the 1950s. It was Israel, for instance, that obtained a copy of Nikita Khrushchev’s 1956 ‘secret speech’ to Communist party leaders, denouncing Stalin. Israel also, on numerous occasions, captured advanced Soviet weaponry from its Arab enemies, which it then gave to the U.S., helping the latter stay abreast of Moscow’s technology and its vulnerabilities.” (Ref. 11) “In 1967, Israel defeated a radical Arab, pro-Soviet offensive, which threatened to bring about the collapse of pro-American Arab regimes and disrupt oil supply, thus severely undermining the American standard of living. The U.S. gained valuable military information from analysis of captured Soviet equipment, including SAM-2, SAM-12, Mig-21 aircraft, and Soviet T-54 battle tanks. In fact, Israel gave an entire squadron of MiG-21s to the U.S. which was dubbed the ‘Top Gun’ squadron and used by the U.S. Air and Naval forces for training purposes. Since 1967, Israel transferred captured Soviet weapons systems to the U.S. Pentagon after every conflict: 1967, 1967-70, 1973, 1982, 1990 (Scud remnants from the Gulf War), and 2006 (remnants of Iranian supplied missiles. “In the 1967-1970 1000 Day War of Attrition, the IDF, armed with American aircraft successfully defeated a Soviet-supplied air defense system, pointing out the deficiencies in Soviet air-defense doctrine to US defense planners. Israel shared captured military equipment include P-2 radar and Soviet tanks with the U.S. military.” (Ref. 12) With respect to Israel’s making Advanced Soviet military technology available to the United States, I can speak from personal experience. Following the 1973 Yom Kippur War, I met with U.S. Army officers who were effusive in expressing their gratitude to Israel for providing them with almost instantaneous access to the most modern and sophisticated Soviet weaponry that Israel had captured from the Egyptians. Some of this captured equipment was transferred to the U.S. for exploitation. “During the cold war, U.S. intelligence had difficulty collecting information from behind the Iron Curtain, instead concentrating on technical means of collection, especially aerial photography: first by U-2 planes, then by satellites. Thus, particularly in domains of a clearly technological nature such as the Soviet nuclear threat, it was easy to err through over- or underestimation. [By recruiting retired members of the Soviet defense establishment], the Israeli intelligence community succeeded, in the latter half of the 1970s and the early 1980s, to provide its American counterpart with highly valuable, original information on the Soviet strategic-missile array as it existed at the end of the 1960s. “Based on the information that Israel provided, one could construct a detailed and quite accurate picture of the structure and dispersal of at least some of the Soviet army’s strategic-missile brigades. . . . Some of the intelligence information could be verified with aerial photographs. But it also included details, as well as rumors, that were verified only later. . . . “The CIA expressed its gratitude to the Israeli intelligence community, noting that the information was ‘unique’ and had enabled the agency to adjust its intelligence overestimation on the issue in question. According to a senior CIA official, the information obtained from Israel indicated that Soviet strategic-missile technology was inferior to what the CIA had [previously] believed. . . . [This] Israeli information made a particularly important contribution to America’s ability to defend itself against a Soviet nuclear strike.” (Ref. 11) ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
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| 27 September 2018 {Article 336; Israel_39} |