Israel orders first squadron of stealth F-35s IDF training civilian response teams
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Yaakov Katz , THE JERUSALEM POST
Report: IDF and Iran already Engaged in 'Cyber War'
Ben-David relates that Israel's war on Iran has been successful so far. “The Iranians have experienced a number of malfunctions and unexplained breakdowns,” he says.
Benjamin "Benny" Gantz Appointed to be Deputy Chief of the General Staff
The Chief of the General Staff, Lt. Gen. Gabi Ashkenazi, decided to appoint
Maj. Gen Benjamin "Benny" Gantz to be the new Deputy Chief of the General
Staff. Maj. Gen. Gantz will begin his role in several months and will
replace Maj. Gen. Dan Harel. Maj. Gen. Gantz's substitute as the Defense
Attaché to the USA and Canada will be determined in the near future.
The Minister of Defense, Mr. Ehud Barak, confirmed the decision of the Chief
of the General Staff.
The Chief of the General Staff also decided that the Chief of Defense
Intelligence, Maj. Gen. Amos Yadlin, will remain in his position and will
not be replaced in the current rotation. He also decided that Maj. Gen. Gadi
Eisenkot will continue in his current role as GOC of the Northern Command,
and has offered the GOC of the Southern Command, Maj. Gen. Yoav Galant, to
become the new Chief of Ground Forces, or alternatively to remain in his
current position.
During the past week, an effort has been made to execute a rotation of
appointments in the IDF, while correspondingly allowing the three Maj.
Gen. - Eisenkot, Galant and Gantz - to stay in the military so as to be
candidates for the next Chief of Staff in due time.
In addition, the Chief of the General Staff decided to appoint Brig. Gen.
Kobi Barak to be the new Head of the Operations Division.
More appointments will be made in the near future.
--------------------------------------------
IMRA - Independent Media Review and Analysis
Website: www.imra.org.il
Friday, 10 July 2009
Jul. 9, 2009
Israel moved a step closer to receiving its first stealth fighter jets this week after the Israel Air Force submitted an official Letter of Request (LOR) to the Pentagon to purchase its first squadron of 25 F-35 stealth fighter jets.
Also known as the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF), the F-35 will be one of the most-advanced fighter jets in the world and will enable Israel to phase out some of its older F-15 and F-16 models. The JSF is manufactured by Lockheed Martin.
Defense officials said that while the LOR was submitted this week, negotiations regarding the final price of the plane - estimated at around $100 million - as well as the integration of Israeli systems would continue.
The LOR will be followed by the signing of a contract in the beginning of 2010. The first aircraft are scheduled to arrive in Israel in 2014.
The first stage of the deal will be the purchase of 25 aircraft, which will compromise the first Israeli F-35 squadron. In a later stage, the IAF plans to purchase an additional 50 aircraft, some of them with vertical take-off and landing capabilities.
According to senior IDF officers, the Defense Ministry and the Pentagon have reached understandings on most of the major issues that have been at the core of disagreement between the sides.
Israeli demands have focused on three issues - the integration of Israeli-made electronic warfare systems into the plane, the integration of Israeli communication systems and the ability to independently maintain the plane in the event of a technical or structural problem.
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443770618&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Jul. 10, 2009
Home Front Command soldiers on the scene of a rocket attack during the Second Lebanon War. Photo: Ariel Jerozolimsk
Three years after the Second Lebanon War, the army is preparing border communities for a new scenario - an infiltration and ensuing shootout.
The IDF has trained civilian rapid-response teams in the communities and provided them with new equipment, including M-16 rifles, bulletproof vests, helmets and communication devices. The teams have undergone special training sessions at the IDF's Elyakim training base in the Lower Galilee, as well as inside the communities themselves.
The assessment within the defense establishment is that Hizbullah, if it decides to attack Israel, will not kidnap a soldier as it did on July 12, 2006, when in a cross-border raid it abducted IDF reservists Eldad Regev and Ehud Goldwasser, but will instead try to infiltrate border communities with the goal of killing civilians.
The motivation for such an attack, defense officials said, could be the February 2008 assassination in Damascus of Hizbullah military chief Imad Mughniyeh, which was attributed to Israel. Hizbullah's frustration at having failed as yet to perpetrate attacks against Israeli targets abroad has led to Israeli concern the group will decide to launch a retaliatory attack against the northern border, which would be operationally easier.
A number of towns are located along the Lebanese border, including Yaron, Avivim and Malkiya, which are situated just meters away from the border fence. Despite improvements to the IDF's response time, the concern is that due to the close proximity of these towns to the border, a well-trained team of terrorists would infiltrate them before the army could arrive on the scene.•
This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com /servlet/Satellite?cid=1246443770825&pagename=JPArticle%2FShowFull
Tammuz 18, 5769, 10 July 09 10:16
by Maayana Miskin(Israelnationalnews.com) While Israel has publicly refrained from striking Iran, a secret “cyber war” may have already begun, according to ABC's Simon McGregor-Wood. Clandestine computer battles are used both to gather information and to launch offensive strikes, he says.
Israeli defense expert Alon Ben-David, who spoke with McGregor-Wood, believes cyber warfare has become “a very important area in Israeli strategy.” Israel began hacking into foreign systems years ago, after a routine exercise demonstrated that Israel's own systems were shockingly unprepared for a cyber assault.
It did not take long for Israel to apply those findings to other countries, experts say.
'Unexplained breakdowns'
Targeting Iran is particularly easy as the Islamic Republic imports the vast majority of its computer equipment and expertise. This allows Israel to target Iran's computers before they even reach the country.
Israel successfully attacked computer-based systems in Syria as well, Ben-David says. Only the use of “cyber war” allowed Israel to conduct an airstrike on a Syrian nuclear facility in 2007 without setting off Syria's air defense systems, he explains.
Cyber attacks have also been used against Israel. During Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, Israeli government sites came under attack and were briefly paralyzed. More sensitive systems were not breached.
The attack on Israel's systems, in January of this year, involved more than half a million computers sending a total of 15 million junk mail items each second, causing server overload. While cyber attacks are notoriously difficult to track, Israeli experts believe they may have pinpointed the culprit: a criminal group based in the former Soviet Union that used similar tactics against Georgia months earlier. The group may have been paid off by Hamas or Hizbullah, they say.
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IDF Spokesperson Friday, July 10th, 2009
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