Hezbollah's capabilities: 'Blunting IAF supremacy!'

Sunday, 22 January 2012

Hezbollah's capabilities: 'Blunting IAF supremacy!'

Via FLC

(UPI) -- "... Hezbollah is already believed to have a substantial number of M600s, which are Syrian-produced clones of Iran's Fateh-100 missile.
The M600 has a range of around 190 miles and carries a warhead containing a half-ton of high explosives.
The Israelis estimate that Hezbollah possesses around 42,000 missiles and rockets, including long-range weapons capable of hitting anywhere in Israel and which are changing the nature of Middle Eastern warfare... ... Military officials have warned Israel's population of 7 million that Israeli cities could be hit by 500 projectiles a day for weeks on end if a new conflict erupts.
"According to Western intelligence assessments, Hezbollah is believed to have taken advantage of the ongoing upheaval in Syria to obtain advanced weapons systems, such as additional long-range rockets as well as Russian-made air-defense systems," Post military analyst Yaacov Katz wrote.
The Israelis said Shiite guerrillas, who have underground missile depots across their heartland in the Bekaa Valley of northeastern Lebanon along the Syrian border, possess the SA-8, a Russian mobile SAM system with an estimated range of around 20 miles.
The Israeli air force, the strongest in the Middle East and equipped largely with U.S.-made aircraft and weapons systems, is capable of countering the SA-8 ... However, if Hezbollah has SA-8s in sufficient numbers to hurl multiple missiles at Israeli aircraft, which have enjoyed unchallenged mastery of the skies over Lebanon for decades, it could impede airstrikes.... With enough SA-8s, and the large quantity of Russian shoulder-fired SAMs Hezbollah is believed to have received from Syria over the last two years, the battle-hardened guerrillas could blunt Israeli air operations for a time to a degree not seen since the invading Egyptians drove off Israeli jets in the opening days of the 1973 war.
Apart from the addition of "several dozen" M600s to its armory, Hezbollah is believed to have acquired additional 302mm Khaibar-1 rockets from Syria. These have a range of around 62 miles..."