A Syrian missile exploded in southern Israel on Thursday, the Israeli military said, in an incident that triggered warning sirens near the secretive Dimona nuclear reactor and an Israeli strike in Syria. An Israeli military spokesman identified the projectile as an SA-5 surface-to-air missile
(The S-200 SA-5 GAMMON is a medium to high -altitude surface-to-air missile system. The single-stage missile has four jettisonable, wraparound solid propellant boosters, each of which is is 4.9 m long and 0.48 m in diameter with a single fin spanning 0.35 m from the booster body. The missile is 10.72 m long overall with a wing span of 2.85 m. The main body is 0.85 m in diameter and has a solid fuel dual thrust sustainer rocket motor. The missile’s minimum range of 60 km is due to the booster burn time and jettison requirements, limiting the system to engagements against relatively large unmanoeuvrable targets at ranges up to 250 km. The large HE warhead is detonated either by a command signal or the onboard proximity fusing system. When fitted with a nuclear warhead only the command detonation option is used.)
fired by Syrian forces against Israeli aircraft. He said it overflew its target to reach the Dimona area, 200 km (125 miles) south of the Syrian border. The missile did not hit the reactor, exploding some 30 km (19 miles) away, the spokesman added. The sirens that sounded overnight in the Dimona area followed weeks of heightened tension between Israel and Iran, a close ally of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, amid renewed global negotiations over Tehran’s nuclear programme. For weeks, Israeli media have said air defences around the Dimona reactor and the Red Sea port of Eilat were being strengthened in anticipation of a possible long-range missile or drone attack by Iranian-backed forces. In public remarks on Thursday’s incident, Israeli Defence Minister Benny Gantz said the anti-aircraft missile was fired from Syria during an Israeli strike there against “assets that could be used for a potential attack against Israel”.
Gantz said Israel’s anti-missile systems had attempted to intercept the SA-5 but were unsuccessful.
“In most cases, we achieve other results. This is a slightly more complex case. We will investigate it and move on,” he said. Israeli security sources said the missile exploded in mid-air. Nick Note: this missile is not the bottle rockets routinely fired by Hams at Israel from Gazza. Those tube rockets are made from seamless pipe and a school boy could whip one up in his garage. This suffocated guided missile of Russian design is a horse of a different color. It was fired from the town of Dumayr Syria the location of weapons depots belonging to Iran-backed militias fighting alongside the Syrian military and transversed 125 of Israel airspace from north to south flying over several banks of Israeli air defenses that failed to detect it until it was to late. And when engaged by the Iron Dome (Dum Dum) (Where was the Arrow system?) anti missile system (i would ask for a refund) was not hit. The cover story is this was a stray missile fired at an Israeli fighter jet. It looks to me like a test for what will be guided missiles raining down from Syria and Lebanon on cities across Israel. I can tell you the arsenal of sophisticated missiles supplied by Iran to Israel’s enemies in the north number well over 3000. By law every house, apartment building, office and mall must have hardened bomb shelters. Israel has an extensive incoming missile warning system in every city town and village. On another note: the missiles are capable beside carrying traditional warheads can be set up to carry chemical, germ and NUCLEAR war heads… Uranium enriched over 50% is a hop skip and jump away form nuclear grade. At the level of enrichment Iran has achieved their are no technical hurdles standing in the way of Iran building nukes.