IDF shoots down drone that penetrated deep into Israel

[Lovebears65]

IDF shoots down drone that penetrated deep into Israel | The Times of Israel

I bet it is about to get real over there , like it not already..

 

[Oldguy]

It'll probably turn out to be one of ours which "strayed off course."

 

[waltky]

Somebody spyin' on Israel...

Israel shoots down drone
Sat October 6, 2012 - Israel views drone flyover "very severely," Defense Minister Ehud Barak says; Israeli officials don't know where the drone came from, a spokeswoman says; The drone did not carry any weapons or explosives

The Israeli air force shot down an unmanned drone Saturday over the northern Negev desert, the nation's military said. The Israeli Defense Forces spotted the drone, which did not carry any weapons or explosives, hovering over Gaza before it entered Israeli airspace, military spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said.

Forces kept the drone under surveillance until a fighter jet shot it down around 10 a.m. Saturday over the Yatir Forest, the IDF said. Leibovich declined to discuss the drone's route or whether it had flown over military installations.

"We view this incident of attempting to enter Israeli airspace very severely and we will consider our response later," Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said in a statement released Saturday afternoon.

It was not clear where the drone originated. Military officials, however, said it does not appear that it took off from Gaza, which along with Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and Mediterranean Sea forms the western border of the Negev.

Israel shoots down drone - CNN.com

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Israel downs drone over its airspace, suspects Hezbollah
Israel brought down a drone that crossed into its airspace Saturday, the first such incident in six years. Officials say it may have been a surveillance drone launched by Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israel scrambled fighter jets to intercept a drone Saturday that crossed deep into Israeli airspace from the Mediterranean Sea, shooting the aircraft down over the country's southern desert, the military said. The incident marked the first time in at least six years that a hostile aircraft has penetrated Israel's airspace, and Israeli officials said they were taking the incident seriously, raising the possibility of retaliatory action.

It was not immediately clear who launched the drone, but suspicion quickly fell on the Lebanese Islamic militant group Hezbollah. The Iranian-backed group is known to have sent drones into Israeli airspace on several previous occasions. Tensions are running high between Iran and Israel over Tehran's nuclear program, which the West believes is cover for the development of atomic weapons. The Islamic Republic denies the allegations, and says its program is for peaceful purposes only. Israel has threatened to carry out a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities to prevent Iran from acquiring such weapons.

Lt. Col. Avital Leibovich said Israeli ground systems detected the drone, which flew over the Gaza Strip but did not originate there, Saturday morning and alerted the air force, which scrambled the jets to intercept the aircraft. She said Israel was still trying to determine where the drone took off from. Nobody was hurt in the incident. Leibovich said Israeli jets escorted the drone before deciding to bring it down in the northern Negev area, which is largely uninhabited.

The drone, which was downed near the Yatir Forrest close to the West Bank, had spent about 20 minutes in Israeli air space, an Israeli military official said on condition of anonymity in line with protocol. Leibovich did not give more details, but Israel media reported that the aircraft was not carrying explosives and could have been a surveillance drone.

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[waltky]

Israel to shoot down Hezbollah drones with Patriot missiles...

Israel readies Patriot missiles to counter suspected Hezbollah drones
October 08, 2012 – Military sources tell a local Hebrew newspaper that the Israeli Air Force has deployed a US-made Patriot missile battery to Haifa in northern Israel as tensions mounted over the weekend flight of a drone into Israeli airspace.

The location of the battery, on a mountain overlooking Israel’s border with Lebanon, serves as further confirmation that Israel is concerned that Hezbollah in southern Lebanon is behind the drone. Forty-eight hours into the investigation of an unmanned aircraft flying into Israeli airspace there is no confirmation which of the Jewish state’s enemies have made significant enough technological strides to launch the drone and fly it deep into Israeli airspace. Saturday morning, Israeli radar tracked the drone flying toward the coast from the Mediterranean, then over the Gaza strip and into Israel. Twenty minutes after it crossed into southern Israel, scrambled fighter jets from the Israeli Air Force shot it down.

Since then, intense speculation has surrounded the drone’s origin. So far the Israeli Military has ruled out the militant groups in the Gaza Strip, and most evidence points to the Iranian-backed group Hezbollah, operating out of southern Lebanon.While the group has not commented directly, a TV station linked to the group said it belonged to Hezbollah. If true, it would be a major leap forward for the Shiite Muslim Militia. In 2006, Hezbollah flew small drones laden with explosives into northern Israel, just across the Lebanon border, but a long range flight over the Mediterranean and then back into Israel would require a level of technological sophistication not yet seen from the group. One likely source of such technology would be Iran, which supplies much of Hezbollah weaponry and provides strategic guidance for the group.

Iran used the drone’s flight to poke fun at Israel, and an official was cited by the Associated Press as saying the move exposed the weakness of Israeli Air Defenses. Iran, however, did not directly claim responsibility. Rather, Jamaluddin Aberoumand of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps told the AP: “The Zionist Regime (Israel) has many enemies.”

Israeli experts speculate the drone may have been on a reconnaissance mission to gather intelligence on Israeli Military targets and possibly the closely guarded nuclear reactor at Dimona in the southern Israeli Desert. Israeli fighters reportedly made several low passes over Hezbollah strongholds in southern Lebanon, but stopped short of dropping bombs or trying to retaliate for the drone flight.

Read more: Israel readies Patriot missiles to counter suspected Hezbollah drones | Fox News

 

[waltky]

Granny says dat's right, she knowed it was - dey always tryin' to provoke a war with Israel...

Hezbollah says it sent drone over Israel
Oct 11,`12 -- The leader of Hezbollah claimed responsibility Thursday for launching the drone aircraft that entered Israeli airspace earlier this week, a rare and provocative move by the Lebanese militants at a time of soaring regional tensions.

Israeli warplanes shot down the unmanned plane, but the infiltration marked a rare breach of Israel's airspace. Hezbollah had been the leading suspect because of its arsenal of sophisticated Iranian weapons and a history of trying to deploy similar aircraft. "Today we are uncovering a small part of our capabilities, and we shall keep many more hidden," Sheik Hassan Nasrallah said in a televised address. "It is our natural right to send other reconnaissance flights inside occupied Palestine ... This is not the first time and will not be the last. We can reach any place we want" inside Israel, he said.

With a formidable arsenal that rivals that of the Lebanese army, Hezbollah is already under pressure in Lebanon from rivals who accuse it of putting Lebanon at risk of getting sucked into regional turmoil. Confirmation that Hezbollah was behind the drone could put the group under further strain internally as it pursues its longstanding conflict with Israel. Israel routinely sends F-16s into over Lebanon, breaking the sound barrier over Beirut and other places as a show of strength.

Hezbollah, a powerful Shiite group committed to Israel's destruction, has long served as an Iranian proxy along Israel's northern border. The two sides fought a brutal monthlong war in mid-2006. Hundreds of people were killed, and Hezbollah fired several thousand rockets and missiles into Israel before the conflict ended in a stalemate.

Hezbollah has attempted to send unmanned aircraft into Israel on several occasions, dating back to 2004. Nasrallah has claimed that the group's pilotless aircraft were capable of carrying explosives and striking deep into Israel. The last known attempt by Hezbollah to use a drone took place during the 2006 war, when Israel shot down an Iranian-made pilotless aircraft that entered its airspace. Since the fighting ended, the sides have been locked in a covert battle against one another.

Touring southern Israel on Thursday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised efforts to prevent land infiltrations from Egypt. He mentioned that Israel has been equally successful "in the air, just like we thwarted the Hezbollah attempt last weekend," his first public statement blaming Hezbollah. Israel says the drone was not carrying explosives and appeared to be on a reconnaissance mission.

Source

 

[waltky]

Uncle Ferd says dey done reverse-engineered dat drone of ours dey shot down...

Iran’s New Drone Can Be Used to Carry Bombs, Top Commander Says
October 15, 2012 - Iran has unveiled a new drone (“Hazem”) aircraft with bombing capability, which was designed by air defense experts for “appropriate” military missions.

According to state-run news reports out of Tehran, the new unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) will be produced in short-range, medium- and long-range versions. Although it is not able to carry missiles, the new drone can take on explosives.

“The ‘Hazem’ [“Cautious” in Persian] drone was covertly designed for the base by air defense experts in short, medium and long range models,” Farzad Esma’ili, commander of the Khatam ol-Anbia air defense base, told the state-run Fars News Agency on Sunday. “This drone can be used for targeting, reconnaissance missions, and if necessary, as an airborne carrier,” he said.

Iran produced its first unmanned drone called “Karrar,” in August 2010 -- capable of carrying rockets and going on bombing missions. On Sunday, Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi said he supported the right of the Iran-backed Hezbollah to send drones into Israeli airspace.

Hezbollah, the terrorist group and political party, which is based in Lebanon, took responsibility for launching a drone into Israeli airspace last Thursday, which was later shot down. “Given the Zionist regime's repeated violation of the Lebanese airspace, we believe that Hezbollah's drone flight over the occupied lands (Israel) was its natural right,” said Vahidi.

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