An Iskander ballistic missile was successfully launched during an exercise in the Jewish Autonomous Area in the Far East and hit a target 185 miles away, a spokesman for the Eastern Military District, one of the four operational strategic commands of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, announced Friday.

The Iskander ballistic missile is equipped with two solid-propellant single-stage guided missiles, each one controlled throughout the entire flight path and fitted with an inseparable warhead. Each missile in the launch carrier vehicle can be independently targeted in a matter of seconds. The mobility of the Iskander launch platform makes a launch difficult to prevent. Also, the Iskander targets can be acquired not only by satellite and aircraft but also by a conventional intelligence center, by an artillery observer or from aerial photos scanned into a computer. The missiles can be re-targeted during flight in case of engaging mobile targets.

Another unique feature of the Iskander system is the optically guided warhead, which can also be controlled by encrypted radio transmission, including from AWACS or UAV. The missile’s on-board computer receives images of the target, then locks onto the target with its sight and descends towards it at supersonic speed.

“The launch was carried out from a training site in the Jewish Autonomous area. The missile hit a target at a proving ground in the Amur region 300 kilometers (185 miles) away,” the spokesman said.

The missile destroyed several military infrastructure facilities of a hypothetical enemy, including a command center. Mechanized infantry units then went on the offensive. More than 400 officers and men and 100 pieces of military equipment from a missile unit of the Eastern Military District are involved in the exercise.

The Jewish Autonomous Oblast (administration) is a federal autonomous region in the Russian Far East, bordering the Heilongjiang province in China. The Soviets established the autonomous oblast in 1934, as part of Stalin’s Soviet nationality policy, which provided the Jewish population of the Soviet Union with a territory in which to pursue Yiddish cultural heritage. According to the 1939 population census, 17,695 Jews lived in the region at the time, about 16% of the total population. The Jewish population peaked in 1948 at around 30,000, about one-quarter of the region’s population.

In 2010, according to the Russian Census Bureau, there were only 1,628 people of Jewish descent in the Jewish Autonomy, fewer than 1% of the population, while ethnic Russians made up 92.7% of the population.

On July 17, a drone entered Israeli airspace from Syria and flew over the Golan. As reported in JewishPress.com, Israel launched 2 Patriot missiles at the drone, as well as a missile launched from an aircraft.

All three missile missed, and the drone flew back into Syria.

Fragment from the missiles landed near Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar, and a 14-year-old girl was injured when one of the missile fragments hit her in the leg.

At the time there was speculation that the drone was Russian.

A report released today in Haaretz says that according to the Israeli Defense Ministry, Russia admitted the drone was theirs and it entered Israeli air space due to human error.

Russia’s admission may explain how, despite three attempts, Israel “missed” knocking down the drone, as Israel wanted to send a message to Russia to stop the overflight, but not cause an international incident by actually knocking the drone down.

The infiltration happened soon after Turkey shot down a Russian plane near the Syrian Turkey, raising tension even higher between those two countries.

U.S. military forces spent last week learning how to deal with radical Islamic terrorism from the experience of their Israeli counterparts.

Israeli Defense Forces and members of the U.S. Marine Corps joined together for a live-fire training exercise in southern Israel to improve collaboration and interoperability between their two forces.

The Marines’ Battalion Landing Team, 6th Marine Regiment and 22nd Marine Expeditionary Unit trained last week with Israeli ground troops, air and naval forces on urban warfare and counter terror techniques, Israel’s Channel 2 television news reported.

The scenarios in the exercise included various tactical formations such as drilled helicopter landings behind enemy lines, simulated extractions under fire – including by combat medics – as well as a scenario in which Israel was subjected to a barrage of Iranian and Hezbollah missiles.

The latter was used to test real-time integration of Israeli and American missile defense systems, with the Israelis employing American radar systems deployed across the Middle East in addition to a satellite alert system that picks up missile launches from around the planet.

The Israeli ‘David’s Sling’ missile defense system (which targets medium to long-range missiles) was also used during the drill although it is not yet fully operational.

A 14-year-old girl from Jerusalem was injured on Sunday after a fragment from one of the Patriot missiles launched today hit her in the leg, according to a Walla report.

The girl was hiking with a group on the Golan Heights near Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar when a fragment from one of the exploded Patriot missile fell and hit her in the left leg, leaving a cut 3 centimeters above her left knee.

She was taken to the emergency room in Tzfat where she is listed as lightly injured. Doctors are checking to make sure there are no additional fragments in her leg.

The two Patriot missiles launched at the infiltrating drone missed their target, and the drone returned to Syrian airspace.

Some security official are considering the possibility that it was a Russian drone that infiltrated into Israeli airspace.

The following photo is making the rounds on WhatsApp. It is one of the fragments from the Patriot missile that fell near Kibbutz Ayelet Hashachar.

A fire also broke out near the community from the exploded missile (you can see the firetruck in the background putting out the fire).
Source: Zartusatra / Rotter.net

Another Patriot missile fragment near Ayelet Hashachar:
Source: HotNews1

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s office issued the following statement regarding the dispute between the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) and the Obama Administration over US support for Israel’s anti-missile program:

“In the wake of numerous misleading reports, the Prime Minister’s bureau would like to clarify there has been no cut in American assistance. There is an internal debate between Congress and the White House on the size of the annual supplement to the missile defense program.

“Prime Minister Netanyahu is working to anchor this supplement as part of the discussions on the assistance agreement for the next ten years.

“Not only will security assistance for missile defense not be cut, it will be increased.

“The attempt to turn the dialogue with the US into a domestic Israeli political tool is improper; expressions of panic are not warranted,” the PM’s statement concluded.

The IDF has carried out a complex test simulating a strategic location being targeted by ballistic missiles.

During the test short range rockets were fired from the shore; all of which were detected and classified as real threats by the Adir system, were targeted by the Tamir weapons system.

All of the rockets that were aimed towards the strategic assets were intercepted and destroyed by the Tamir interceptors.

The Tamir Adir, named “Iron Dome of the Sea“, is based on the Iron Dome system and capabilities. Some algorithms and other parts of the system were changed in order to enable the use of the system in naval environment, which involves high dynamic changes, while the ship is moving or in place.

The system’s initial operational mission oriented capability can already be used. Once the system’s development is complete, it will be integrated as a complete naval system.

Russia is not going to deliver the S-300 air defense missile systems to Syria, according to Alexander Fomin, head of the Russian Federal Service for Military-Technical Cooperation (FSVTS), who spoke to the press on Tuesday, TASS reported.

“There are no such plans as of today,” Fomin said, in response to a question regarding Russian negotiations with the Assad regime on selling them the missile systems.

Meanwhile, according to Fomin, Russia is already supplying the S-300 missile systems to Iran—ahead of schedule—and is in talks with Tehran on purchases of additional military equipment. “We have contracts with Iran, other contracts are also possible, but the talk is only about the permitted supplies, which are not on the UN’s ban list.”

On April 11, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in a radio interview with Ekho Moskvy that Russia had started deliver of S-300 systems to Iran, with the deal to be completed by the end of the year. “We are acting in strict compliance with the contract. They pay, we sell. We have already started. It is a supply in full sets,” he said.

Russia and Iran signed a contract in 2007 for the supply of five S-300PMU-1 battalions, but then, in 2010, then-President Dmitry Medvedev banned the supply of the systems to Tehran, following a deal with Israel which compensated Russia by promising not to compete with Russian natural gas in Europe. The Iran contract, worth more than $800 million, was annulled and the paid advance was returned to Iran, which filed a $4 billion lawsuit against Russia at the Geneva Court of Arbitration. That suit has now been cancelled.

The S-300 system was developed to defend against aircraft and cruise missiles for the Soviet Air Defense Forces. Subsequent variations were developed to intercept ballistic missiles. It is regarded as one of the most potent anti-aircraft missile systems currently in operation. An evolved version of the S-300 system, the S-400, entered limited service in 2004.

In 2014, the Syrian government requested Moscow to supply the S-300 air defense missile systems to the Syrian army in anticipation of “a possible US attack” on Syria.

According to a source in the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Jarida, Russia received intelligence from Israel a year ago that Tehran had violated an agreement with Moscow not to pass on advanced Russian-made weaponry to the terror group Hezbollah, its proxy in Lebanon. President Putin was handed intelligence from Israel showing that Iran had supplied Hezbollah with Russian-made SA-22 surface-to-air missile systems.

According to Al Jarida, Russia confirmed this information with surveillance flights over Lebanon and Syria, using their own anti-missile radars to detect the systems which had been moved to Lebanon.