South Korea looking to buy Israel's Iron Dome aerial defense system
In wake of IAF's recommendation to acquire new training jets from Italy, South Korea sweetens terms of counteroffer.
By Amos Harel Tags: Iron DomeSouth Korea has offered to buy a significant quantity of Israeli-made weapons and defense systems, including the anti-rocket Iron Dome system, if Israel agrees to purchase South Korean fighter jets.
The Israel Air Force is looking to replace its aging fleet of American-made A-4 Skyhawk jets, which are used to train fighter pilots. The two alternatives being considered are the Korean-made T-50 Golden Eagle and Italy's M-346 Master.
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An Iron Dome rocket being launched to intercept a missile near Be’er Sheva on Sunday August 21, 2011. |
| Photo by: AP |
The defense industries of South Korea and Italy are locked in a fierce competition for the contract, worth approximately $1 billion. Last week, the Israel Air Force recommended purchasing the Italian planes.
The final decision, however, will be made by the Defense Ministry, and one of the considerations which will be taken into account is the value of reciprocal deals with Israel's defense industry.
Italy has proposed a reciprocal deal, under which it would purchase some $1 billion of defense equipment, including satellites, from Israel.
In response, Korea proposed a deal potentially worth $1.6 billion, which would include the purchase of Israeli-made radar systems, as well as contracts for upgrading helicopters and Hercules aircraft.
In recent weeks, the South Korean Defense Procurement Agency made an additional offer. While the new offer does not specify a price, it does include a number of additional deals, including the Iron Dome system.
The new offer also includes cooperation on a number of other projects, including the conversion of refueling jets, development of a Korean-made fighter jet and a helicopter and satellites.
A final decision on the deal is expected within the next few weeks.
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Iron Dome is programmed to ignore missiles that it determines are heading to an open area, and will cause no harm. It has a high interception rate against missiles it goes after, not perfect, but it has been very effective
The ethos of the IAF has always been 'only the best for the pilots' .Hence the IAF became one of the first airforces to receive aircraft like the F-4E Phantom, F-15 and F-16 outside the USAF. There are many considerations which will have been taken onto account by the IAF in selecting a new trainer. Commercial considerations such as bilateral trade will be very low down or irrelevant for the airforce.The IAF is renowned for having the most stringent pilot selection and training of any airforce. If the IAF has actually gone public on its preferred aircraft , which I am not convinced it has, it would surely only do so if the Italian aircraft was so much better than the South Korean that the IAF wants to exert maximum pressure on the Government to go Italian. Hopefully the best aircraft will win the contest.
israel should also have requested full tech transfer. but i bliv israel has the capability of developing its own advance trainer jet from scratch. unlike the turks and ssm, that can not even develop a pistol with out tech transfer. turkey has overtaken iran as the master of weapon cloning
Since put into service Iron Dome has intercepted about one in five of incoming rockets. Iron Dome is unable to cope with ballistic missiles. The Purpose of Iraon Dome is to be used as an expensive boondoggle in which certain people make money on the deal.
or just dishonest. Iron dome is programmed to ignore missiles that are deemed by their trajectory to be harmless. It only shoots down missiles that are calculated to be heading for a target that will cause damage. Based on its own parameters it has been highly successful
Otherwise it would operate in vain
Human rights violators like in Egypt, Iraq, Syria Libya, Sudan, Yemen, Gaza, Iran and the rest of the Arab world. You loony left are pathetic.
...but the sheer magnitude and ferocity of a N. Korea barrage would probably render it of little use there.
With 10,000 artillery pieces and goodness knows what else, do they really consider iron dome an option. Not only would it be overwhelmed, it would also bankrupt the Koreans.
Hamas can and has plans to render this expensive piece of military hardware useless. The cost of one intercept missile is at 80.000$ while a Katyusha goes for 200-250$. A barrage of 60-120 rockets fired simultaneously at any given target _will_ hit the target. Regards
and its better than the one we currently train with. that 0.5 buck will go to the army budget and will save lives. unlike the training plane.