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IDF unveils ultra-modern weapons
04.04.2005.08:20
The best attack helicopter in the world landed Sunday in Israel as part of a $650 million military aid package from the United States.
The first three of the eighteen AH-64D Apache Longbow helicopters that will be known as "Sarafs" arrived today in American C-5 Galaxy transport planes, the largest transport planes in use in the world.
The new choppers, which are unique for the large radar dish mounted on top of the rotors, have exceptional precision strike capability, automatically identifying and locking on missile targets within seconds.
Boeing, the helicopter's manufacturer, reports that the Longbow has also been sold to Egypt, Greece, Japan, Kuwait, the Netherlands, Singapore and the United Kingdom.
The Longbow saw its first combat deployment with the US in Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Like much of Israel's US-acquired military hardware, the Saraf will receive improvements in its armament and navigational systems, using technology that does not yet exist in the US.
In another technological development, the army weekly "Bamahane" reported the institution of a new system to be deployed along the post-withdrawal Gaza fence through which women soldiers will operate remote-control machine guns in conjunction with cameras and censors in a bid to stop infiltrators.
Remote-controlled observation posts operated by women soldiers are already in use around Gaza. The operators, watching their section of the front on computer screens, can direct soldiers to a point of an attempted infiltration, the weekly said.
The new element in the system is that the soldiers in the command post will be able to aim and fire an array of machine guns at suspected infiltrators. The weapon will have a range of 1,500-2,000 meters, the weekly said.
The remote-control guns would do the job of the soldiers who now chase down infiltrators.
Jerusalem Post
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