Posted by
THE GREAT SATAN on Tuesday, October 17, 2006 8:41:14 AM
Newsflash... from www.debka.com
DEBKAfile
Exclusive: Italy to sell Lebanon sophisticated ground-to-air Aster 15
missiles to stop Israel’s aerial surveillance of hostile movements
October 17, 2006, 12:26 PM (GMT+02:00)
Israeli
aircraft monitor illegal Hizballah movements and arms smuggling - in
the absence of any Lebanese army and UNIFIL preventive action to
implement UN Resolution 1701.
According to DEBKAfile’s
Rome sources, prime minister Romano Prodi has instructed his defense
ministry to negotiate with the Fouad Siniora government the quick sale
of an Aster 15 battery, the only Western surface-to-air missile with an
active guidance system capable of last-minute corrections of targeting
at the moment of interception.
As a joint Franco-Italian product, the sale also needed - and obtained - approval from French president Jacques Chirac.
Our sources report the Aster 15 will be accompanied by Italian
instructors to guide Lebanese troops in their use. Since 50% of those
officers are Shiites loyal to Hizballah or Amal, the Shiite terrorists
are looking forward to gaining access for the first time to
top-of-the-line Western anti-air missile technology.
On Oct. 13, Lebanese chief of staff General Michel Suleiman informed
his officers posted on the Lebanese-Israeli border of the Beirut
government’s “indefatigable efforts” to obtain anti-air missiles to hit
patrolling Israeli aircraft. He added that very soon, Lebanon would
also acquire long-range anti-tank rockets to prevent Israeli tanks
again crossing the border.
Commanders of
the French UNIFIL contingent have threatened to fire on Israeli
warplanes in Lebanese skies, according to Israel defense minister Amir
Peretz in a briefing to a Knesset panel Monday, Oct. 16.
Israel has so far refrained from protesting to Rome against the Aster
15 sale - any more than it has to Washington, the UN Security Council
or UNIFIL over illegal Hizballah movements and arms-smuggling.
The Aster 15 is manufactured by France’s Aerospatiale and Thompson-CSF;
its guidance system by the Alenia/Finmeccanica of Italy. Launched from
seaborne or land bases, it is designed to hit “maneuverable targets” -
aircraft, helicopters, drones or missiles. With a warhead of 3.20 kilos
of explosives, the missile has a range of up to 30 km and a maximum
speed of 3,600 kph. Aster 15’s two stages are a solid propellant
booster and a “dart” equipped with a seeker, a sustainer motor, a
proximity fuse and a blast fragmentation warhead.
Most
significantly, the French-Italian projectile is the only Western
surface-to-air missile with an active guidance system capable of
last-minute corrections of targeting at the moment of interception. In
the hands of the Lebanese army (and its Hizballah component), the Aster
15 will directly jeopardize Israel’s aerial surveillance of Hizballah
and other hostile movements in Lebanon.
DEBKAfile’s
political sources once again note the Olmert government’s virtual
concealment of the impending threat, its blind eye to UNIFIL’s
impotence and its failure to raise an outcry against the missile’s
impending delivery to Beirut. Israel’s leaders are strongly motivated
by their need to stick to the empty boast of military gains in the
Lebanon War and the portrayal of the international force’s deployment
in the South as a diplomatic triumph.
In
contrast, the teams investigating the IDF’s performance in the war are
coming up daily with findings of gross mismanagement. The Israeli
missile ship hit by an Iranian anti-ship C-208 cruise missile July 14 -
for the loss of four men - was found in the latest report to have
omitted to activate the ship’s four missile defense systems, including
the Barak anti-missile missile. The ship sailed dangerously close to
the Beirut coast with none of the 80 officers and crew manning lookout
or attack positions. The panel concluded that there was nothng to stop
Hizballah sinking the frigate by ramming it with an explosives-laden
boat
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