17/12/2001
The head of the retiring HaForash, Yitzhak Ben Israel, reveals in an interview with "Haaretz" that
In the coming months, Israel will launch into space the next photography satellite in the series
"Ofek", which will have an extremely high resolution. He further reveals that
Israel is in an advanced process of developing a missile-carrying drone system
To destroy surface-to-surface missile launchers. Ben Israel estimates that Israel will be forced to pay
China has a billion dollar compensation for canceling the Falcon deal, after
that the Americans rejected an appeal to finance the reparations
By Amnon Barzilai
horizon. A new satellite no longer has a name
General Dr. Yitzhak Ben Israel will retire from his position as head of the Development Administration
Weapons and infrastructure (MPA) at the Ministry of Defense at the end of the month is in full swing
of a debate about his successor. Director General of the Ministry of Defense Amos Yaron and the Chief of Staff
Shaul Mofaz not only failed to reach an agreement regarding Ben's replacement
Israel but also disagree on the question of whether it will be a military man or a civilian.
In one matter there is no dispute: with the retirement of Ben Israel it will come to an end
A period - ten years in which he left his mark on all directions of development
the IDF's technologist. For about six years, Ben Israel served as head of research
and development (R&D) in the IDF and served as number two to the head of PAAT. At half past four
In recent years, he climbed to the top of the pyramid and was actually the head of Mafat
The chief scientist of the defense establishment.
As someone who has served in the last decade in the two senior positions in the field of research
And the security development of the State of Israel, Ben Yisrael accompanied all areas
The development of the weapons systems includes the concept of all projects until their completion
and brought them to full operation. He therefore enjoys great prestige in the country
and in research institutions abroad, and especially among defense ministries around the world
who are in connections, some of them secret, with the State of Israel.
Balloons carrying sensors
Ben Israel sees the change in the perception of the place of the means of warfare
and the technology in current security (BTS), within the framework of the limited conflict,
as the main achievement of his tenure. "They once said that technology is needed for wars
greatness In the Batash, a soldier stands against a soldier and they will fight with their hands, with their teeth,
With a gun and a knife".
"Four-five years ago," says Ben Israel, "we made a change in perception
that I was one of his deputies. We decided that technology should be introduced
to the war in Lebanon. We worked on a project that aims to create a situation where it is in place
that soldiers would lie in ambush and wait for them to happen to pass through Wadi Anshi
Hezbollah, they will use the technologies of sensors for detection and detection."
"When the intifada broke out," says Ben Israel, "we transferred the technologies
These are for the fight against the Palestinians, and we have drastically reduced their number
As a result, according to him, "In the military conflict we are in a situation of
overwhelming superiority. The confrontation with you is high-tech, and that's why
to our relative advantage vis-à-vis the Palestinians. We do things we didn't before
We could have done, like entering the cities without there being hundreds of deaths."
Among the means, Ben Israel specifies, "listening methods, remote photography, airplanes
Without a pilot (drones) and balloons. The point is that the object does not feel
who are filming him. And that's how we get early intelligence. We developed sensors
To discover people and illegal immigrants for the purpose of discovering their activity. These are sensors
They can be carried on vehicles, towers, airplanes and balloons. we developed
Technologies for locating shooting sources".
The new technologies, Ben Israel clarifies, make a significant contribution to countermeasures
the targeted "Ask yourself which conditions must be met, and which ones
Intelligence and verification systems are required, so that there are no innocent people there
a crime And in case of thwarting you have to hit in real time because you can't
prepare a missile today and fire it tomorrow. You have to hit at the right time.
It is about a lot of systems and a lot of technologies. Israel specialized in this a lot
years".
According to Ben Israel, "We prevent about 90% of the attacks. But there are none
Possibility of preventing the action of suicide bombers. Those who are ready to die, it is not easy to stop
him. We are the first in the world to deal with this phenomenon of
Mass suicide".
On the eve of the American attack on Afghanistan, Ben Israel and CEO Yaron traveled
to the USA and held a series of talks with senior Pentagon officials. The two proposed
The Americans have operational methods for locating Osama bin Laden; Ben Israel
He presented the technologies developed by Israel for low-intensity conflicts.
The Americans were enthusiastic. As far as is known, they chose some advanced technologies
for the war on terrorism. This is in addition to the "Popeye" missiles and lightning systems
are flown to identify targets for the H-16 aircraft that are already in operation
operational with the Americans.
One of the achievements of the head of MPAAT is his part in the transformation that took place in the command approach
The IDF's top for defense research and development. Despite the budget cuts
Defense in the last decade, the R&D budget has tripled in the five years
the last and is currently about three billion shekels per year, about 10% of the share
The shekels of the defense budget (that is, not including American aid).
This budget does not include the R&D budgets of the defense industries
Israeliness which is the same scope. The bad news, says Ben Israel, is
that in order to fulfill all of Israel's security needs, it is necessary to double the
The defense R&D budget.
Another bad news is related to the relationship between the State of Israel and China. son
Israel was part of the small group that, together with CEO Yaron, manages the
The contacts with the Pentagon and China, in an attempt to settle the conflict regarding cancellation
The spy plane deal ("Falcon") signed between the governments of Israel and China.
The US forced Israel to cancel the deal on the grounds that the sale of the planes
China is a strategic threat to her. in the talks that took place recently in Beijing
The question of financial compensation to settle the dispute between the two countries came up
Cancellation of the deal. In Israel they say that the Chinese think that the US will pay.
Ben Israel: "The Chinese are demanding more than a billion dollars in compensation. But
When we talked to the Americans that they would finance the reparations, they did
They didn't want to hear it." Ben Israel clarifies that "there is probably no choice. Whoever needs it
The Israeli taxpayer will have to pay more than four billion shekels."
Mapat programs include dozens of ambitious development projects
Unique technologies and weapon systems. "The Americans," says Ben Israel,
"We invest approximately 40 billion dollars a year in defense R&D. They have a majority
The money goes to the development of platforms (ie weapons). We're going
on power multipliers (systems that improve the platforms' capacity). we
Develop elements that give power a different meaning and praise it. and in this
We are not bad."
According to Ben Yisrael, until today Israel has invested a lot of money and "wisdom" in Shesha
Areas in which it is indeed strong: a weapon for precise attack from short ranges
and long with point impact capability; Real time intelligence and drones
for continuous activity; Defense against surface-to-surface missiles (SAMS); superiority
aerial; Maneuvering on the land battlefield: tanks, firepower, firing computers,
shielding shells; Electronic Warfare.
Antivirus software
The two new fields added in the last five years are satellites
and information warfare. Ben Israel says that following a decision that was made before
About two years ago, Israeli experts began developing anti-jamming software
and against viruses. "If you are not protected it is very easy to penetrate you. If four
Children from the tunnels can and the enemy can just as well, and you should
Be protected with software. We develop an antivirus that is the middle
the last one".
In the field of photography satellites, today the security system helps with photography
The civilian satellite "Eros", developed by the Israeli Aerospace Industry
As a derivative of Ofek satellites. Lockheed Martin provides the satellite services
The "Ikonos" photograph that she owns. Ben Israel discovers that the intelligence satellite
"Ofek" will be launched in the coming months. It has not yet been decided whether the new satellite will be read
"Ofek" 4 like the previous one that fell into the sea during the launch in January, '98 or "Ofek
5. For the purpose of the decision, a committee was established.
What is the difference between Ofek and the other satellites?
"The main and essential difference will be its resolution, which is much higher
higher than that of 'Eros' and 'Ikonos', because these are civilian satellites and there are
Limitations on their resolution (resolution is the ability to photograph objects
of a certain size. According to foreign publications, the resolution of Ofek 3 was
1.5 meters, AB). Ofek is a military satellite. Four years ago when
Ofek 4 fell into the sea and we asked ourselves what to do. Do you build another one?
Within a year or so we will build the next generation satellite.
We decided to go for the next generation. This is a satellite that weighs about 20 percent more
Maofet 3 (which weighed about 250 kg and stopped working at the end of 2000 AB). the drawback
We knew it would take four years to build it. The question was what would happen if
Ofek 3 will also fall. We decided to rely on the civil enterprises and that's what
which we did".
Eros provides us with photos from Afghanistan?
"Afghanistan doesn't interest us from space. But if the war on terror gets closer
For our region, it will be important. The Americans have not yet decided. but
Iraq is one of the options, and then what happens there will be important to us."
Regarding the plan to launch communication satellites, Ben Israel says that the IDF
In the stage of defining the needs: what volume of communication needs to be transferred per unit of time,
Encryption level, ranges. We asked the industries to receive offers for watches
for the needs of the IDF".
Ben Yisrael led in the late 90s together with the Air Force Commander at the time
General (Res.) Eitan Ben Eliyahu, the struggle to adopt the concept of an attack
A combination of surface-to-surface missile launchers (SMS) using fighter jets
and missile-carrying UAVs. The perception (known as BPLI) is intended to replace perception
predecessor (BPI), which preferred a ballistic missile attack immediately after it was triggered.
This project stalled because of the resistance of the Americans to finance it?
"The previous administration did not give us a positive answer. But according to our assessment, the war
In Afghanistan, the reference point was reset for the Americans. Today they understand
Much better how important the concept we offered can be for them.
We estimate that today there is a better chance of getting 400 funding
A million dollars for prototype development."
Israel decided in the meantime not to wait. "We decided to invest large sums
very. The Aerospace Industry, which developed the "Machats" UAV, is the contractor
the head of the project. But because of the size of the amounts, it goes much slower."
One of the projects that is fully supervised by Mapat is the development of the "Hats" system
to intercept ballistic missiles. Before the Gulf War, Ben Israel was head
A department in the Air Force that dealt with anti-aircraft missiles and arrows, and opposed the project. "I thought
So it's a project that won't justify the money that needs to be invested in it," he explains.
Meanwhile, there was a change in his position. "Two things changed my mind. The Gulf War
And the fact that the Iraqis fired missiles at us. Although the damage was marginal, this
It was a blow to the mind. The second point is that most of the money was given by me
USA. Dayan once said that only a donkey does not change its mind."
"I think the same thing about the anthrax," declares Ben Israel. "someone
Use it. And I think it would be nationally irresponsible to say no
We will prepare and not vaccinate the population. in the reality of the Middle East
We were exposed to something. So they have biological weapons, and we will act like
heroes"?
"The American Senate," notes Ben Israel, "has already approved a joint production line
for the arrow assembly in the United States. The assumption of the experts in the Congress is
that the joint committee (the conference) for the Senate and the House of Representatives budget for the project
Tens of millions of dollars. Meanwhile, these days the draft contract has actually been completed
with the Boeing company to establish the production line in the United States, and its establishment will continue
About a year."
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