ADME Conference: New Threats – UAVs and Cruise Missiles

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Two future aerial defense threats Israel will have to deal with are combat UAVs and cruise missiles. Additional current and future threats are the nuclear warheads developed by Iran, intruding systems with low radar signatures and improved ranges and precision for rockets.

These threats are the main focus of the ADME Conference in Tel Aviv – Air Defense in the Modern Era – organized by INSS, the Israel Missile Defense Association and the iHLS news website.

Brig. Gen. (Res.) Shlomo Brom, senior INSS researcher, said that Israel has kept the use of combat UAVs under wraps. The enemy, however, is also moving forward. Hezbollah is attempting to develop one-use combat UAVs, as it’s clear that they’ll be destroyed by Israel’s Air Force immediately after launch. Hezbollah has Yakhont missiles, originally shore-to-sea but in fact cruise missiles. “We find the threat of these missiles being used against offshore gas platforms very disturbing.” Brig. Gen. Shahar Shohat, commander of the Israeli Air Force air defense array, said that “in the near future we might have to deal with cruise missiles.”

iHLS – Israel Homeland Security

During his opening address at the conference, Maj. Gen. (Res.) Herzl Schroedinger, former Air Force Commander, warned that the present threats facing Israel are threats to military and civilian infrastructure. The IDF has to prepare itself in order to repel any sort of attack. Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Yadlim, President of INSS, said that in the last 30 years nothing has challenged Israel air superiority, but now the civilian home front faces military-grade threats such as ground to ground missiles, rockets, UAVs and in the future cruise missiles.

Brig. Gen. John Shepland, military attache at the U.S. embassy in Tel Aviv, talked about the strategic cooperation between the two states, including that involving air defense. Brig. Gen. Shepland complimented Israel’s impressive air defense capablities, developed in close cooperation with America – the Arrow missiles, for example, and other projects. A major U.S.- Israeli military exercise, Jeniffer-14, will take place soon, proving America’s commitment to maintaining Israel’s capabilities. General Shepland also described a possible regional air defense system in the Middle East, operated by Israel, Jordan and Egypt.

Brig. Gen. Shohat, commander of the Air Force air defense array: “In the next war we’ll have to deal with dozens or hundreds of thousands of rockets and missiles, from Qassam to Shihab; dozens of UAVs from the north and south, carrying payloads ranging in weight from a few kilograms to hundreds; tiny UAVs and unmanned fighter jets carrying hundreds of kilograms of explosives.”