TEL AVIV - Space. The final frontier. And the Israeli Air Force wants in.
The IAF's continuing mission to defend Israel will soon expand beyond its conventional frontiers as it plans to launch more advanced spy satellites into space that could allow it to track better intelligence information on more distant enemy countries, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper said on Thursday.
The IAF established a space branch in 2003 to expand its air capabilities. It current operates a wide variety of planes, helicopters, drones and anti-tank missile defense systems to track terrorists and observe their activity in the West Bank and Gaza.
It conducts short-range surveillances of neighboring countries through its Ofek spy satellite system and the Earth Remote Observation Satellites, or EROS, which transmits images. It can currently observe meter-sized objects.
But a foundry in the town of Ashdod is currently developing a "next generation" satellite that can observe a wider range and can produce up-to-the-minute images taken at night, through fog or through a sandstorm – a common weather occurrence in the deserts of Gulf states.
'Dependence on space enormous'
"The space system is turning into a central part of the Air Force infrastructure," a security source told Yedioth. "The dependence on space is becoming enormous."
In the more distant future, Israel plans to manufacture micro-satellites that could provide information about combat zones, which could be fired from planes and would therefore eliminate the need for heavy ground launchers.
Israel's rocket launch of its spy satellite Ofek-6, intended to boost its surveillance over arch-enemy Iran, crashed into the sea shortly after liftoff from Tel Aviv in September.
Hardline president-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday that Iran would press ahead with its controversial nuclear program. Israel, backed by the United States, accuses Iran of seeking nuclear bombs. Tehran says the purpose of its nuclear program is solely to generate electricity.
Israel said in May that it expected Iran to have the technological capabilities within six to nine months to build nuclear bombs, which could easily reach the Jewish state.
