Jerusalem – According to a report published in Defense News this week, the United States and Israel have signed an agreement to deploy the “X-band FBX-T” early-warning missile radar system, which is linked to a U.S. satellite-based alert network.

Deployment of the X-band comes as part of America’s agreement to help defend the Jewish State against any future strike by a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic.

For the first time ever, military personnel from the U.S. European Command are to be permanently based in Israel, in order to staff the high-powered radar system, built by the Raytheon Company.

Although the original target date for the system’s debut was early 2009, it is likely that the date will be moved up to some time this fall, in order to allow personnel to integrate the system with the Arrow missile defense system.

The new system is expected to double – and possibly triple – the range of identification of incoming missiles aimed at the Jewish State, according to a spokesman for the Pentagon’s Missile Defense Agency (M.D.A.). The official said the X-band system can track an object the size of a baseball from a distance of more than 2,000 kilometers.

The system currently employed by the IDF, a component of the Arrow system dubbed “Green Pine,” has a range of only 500-600 miles. Once the “X-band” is integrated with the Arrow system that range of identification will expand to 2,000 kilometers.

The new range allows the Israeli public a window of approximately five minutes in which to prepare for a Shehab-3 ballistic missile attack from Iran. It similarly gives the Israeli army about five minutes in which to intercept the Iranian missiles.

David Bedein can be reached at dbedein@israelbehindthenews.com. His Web site is www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com

©The Bulletin 2008

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David Bedein
David Bedein
David Bedein is an MSW community organizer and an investigative journalist.   In 1987, Bedein established the Israel Resource News Agency at Beit Agron to accompany foreign journalists in their coverage of Israel, to balance the media lobbies established by the PLO and their allies.   Mr. Bedein has reported for news outlets such as CNN Radio, Makor Rishon, Philadelphia Inquirer, Los Angeles Times, BBC and The Jerusalem Post, For four years, Mr. Bedein acted as the Middle East correspondent for The Philadelphia Bulletin, writing 1,062 articles until the newspaper ceased operation in 2010. Bedein has covered breaking Middle East negotiations in Oslo, Ottawa, Shepherdstown, The Wye Plantation, Annapolis, Geneva, Nicosia, Washington, D.C., London, Bonn, and Vienna. Bedein has overseen investigative studies of the Palestinian Authority, the Expulsion Process from Gush Katif and Samaria, The Peres Center for Peace, Peace Now, The International Center for Economic Cooperation of Yossi Beilin, the ISM, Adalah, and the New Israel Fund.   Since 2005, Bedein has also served as Director of the Center for Near East Policy Research.   A focus of the center's investigations is The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA). In that context, Bedein authored Roadblock to Peace: How the UN Perpetuates the Arab-Israeli Conflict - UNRWA Policies Reconsidered, which caps Bedein's 28 years of investigations of UNRWA. The Center for Near East Policy Research has been instrumental in reaching elected officials, decision makers and journalists, commissioning studies, reports, news stories and films. In 2009, the center began decided to produce short movies, in addition to monographs, to film every aspect of UNRWA education in a clear and cogent fashion.   The center has so far produced seven short documentary pieces n UNRWA which have received international acclaim and recognition, showing how which UNRWA promotes anti-Semitism and incitement to violence in their education'   In sum, Bedein has pioneered The UNRWA Reform Initiative, a strategy which calls for donor nations to insist on reasonable reforms of UNRWA. Bedein and his team of experts provide timely briefings to members to legislative bodies world wide, bringing the results of his investigations to donor nations, while demanding reforms based on transparency, refugee resettlement and the demand that terrorists be removed from the UNRWA schools and UNRWA payroll.   Bedein's work can be found at: www.IsraelBehindTheNews.com and www.cfnepr.com. A new site,unrwa-monitor.com, will be launched very soon.

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