(Defense News) Bradley Bowman and Ryan Brobst - With the possibility that Hizbullah could open a major new front in the north, the U.S. would be wise to proactively provide Israel additional air defenses and weapons as soon as possible to augment what has already been sent or is in the pipeline for delivery. Bloomberg reported on Oct. 10 that a pending order of 1,000 Small Diameter Bombs was already picked up by an Israeli transport aircraft and that an additional sale of Joint Direct Attack Munitions conversion kits, which convert unguided bombs into precision munitions, is being accelerated. More than 5,000 rockets have been fired at Israel so far, and if Hizbullah joins the war, that number could be in the tens of thousands. Therefore, the Pentagon should provide Israel all of the U.S. Army's Tamir interceptors from its two Iron Dome batteries, some of which the U.S. has already started to provide. Washington should strongly consider providing Israel the two Iron Dome batteries themselves as well. Bradley Bowman is the senior director of the Center on Military and Political Power at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, where Ryan Brobst is a senior research analyst.
2023-10-15 00:00:00Full ArticleBACK Visit the Daily Alert Archive