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Israel Wants Robotic Guns, Missiles To Guard Gaza Border

[Defense News] Barbara Opall-Rome - The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is creating automated kill zones around the Gaza Strip aimed at halting infiltrations by terrorists, arms smugglers and other hostile individuals. Now in the final stages of operational testing, the "See-Shoot" system will add weapons to the network of overlapping sensors already deployed along the 60-km. border separating Israel from Gaza. Developed by Rafael, with See-Shoot, once a target is verified and authorized for destruction, operators sitting safely behind command center computers push a button to fire the weapon. See-Shoot embodies the IDF's goal of waging no-signature warfare along its border areas. It obviates the need to dispatch infantry to intercept intruders or to respond to probing maneuvers by enemy squads. In an interview prior to Israel's September 2005 evacuation from Gaza, Gabi Ashkenazi, then the outgoing IDF deputy chief of staff, explained the concept. "We understood from [our May 2000 withdrawal from] Lebanon that in Gaza, we're going to have to compensate for lack of depth and limited freedom of maneuver," Ashkenazi said. "We plan to do this through a technological process that allows us to transform depth, which we'll lack, into time, which we will create with pictures served up instantaneously through the network." Ashkenazi, now Chief of Staff, added, "We can't allow ourselves to be sitting ducks. Our vision is to execute border control without having to deal with booby traps and ambushes." "Through high-quality 24/7 pictures, we'll be able to maintain a very low-signature presence and determine the timing and the conditions under which we respond to terrorist activity." Defense and industry sources said the See-Shoot system should be deployed by the end of the summer, but the government has already authorized IDF Southern Command to begin operating parts of the system in response to the recent surge in violence emanating from the terror-infested strip.
2007-06-08 01:00:00
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