Israel eyes laser, cannon for downing Gaza rockets

TEL AVIV, July 9 (Reuters) A super-heating laser beam and radar-activated heavy machinegun are among technologies Israel is considering for shooting down Palestinian rockets launched from the Gaza Strip, Israeli security sources said today.

But they said Israel's ground incursions against those firing the rockets, such as a weekend sweep in which some 50 Palestinians died, would continue as the other counter-measures are months, even years away from being produced or acquired.

''As long as we cannot reliably stop the rockets before they land, we will have no choice but to go in and prevent them from being launched in the first place,'' a security source said.

The homemade ''Qassam'' rockets fired by Hamas militants in Gaza, and similar weapons used by other groups, have caused relatively few casualties but considerable consternation in Israel. Their maximum range so far has been 12 km enough to strike Ashkelon, a major city in the south.

Since the late 1990s, the Israeli government missile-defence unit Mafat and U.S. arms firm Northrop Grumman have been developing Nautilus, a system that focuses a giant laser on incoming rockets or artillery shells, blowing them up in mid-air.

Though planners said Nautilus had achieved near-perfect scores in field tests and could provide cover for a 10 sq km area, the project was recently shelved. Expertss peculated that the system was too cumbersome for civilian use.

But Israel's Maariv newspaper said Defence Minister Amir Peretz, scrambling to stem Gazan rocket salvoes with ever greater ranges, last month met Northrop Grumman representatives to discuss acquiring a more mobile version of Nautilus.

A security source confirmed the report as ''basically true''.

Northrop Grumman had no immediate comment pending a news conference later this week at which the company said it would discuss plans for ''a new (laser) system to defend against air-based threats such as rockets, missiles and mortars''.

IMPRACTICAL Rachel Naidek-Ashkenazi, spokeswoman for Israel's Defence Ministry, said the original Nautilus was deemed ''not practical'' and that several alternative ideas were under consideration.

Another system that has drawn Israeli interest is Phalanx, a U.S.-made cannon that automatically locks on to rockets or mortar bombs and shreds them with explosive 20 mm bullets.

Originally designed to provide on-board protection for navy ships, Phalanx was adapted for land use and deployed among U.S.

forces in Iraq last year. According to Defence News journal, while shooting down incoming threats, the system also relays the location of launch crews so they can be bombed from the air.

Security sources said Israel had voiced interest in buying Phalanx, though its protective radius is limited and the prospect of heavy machineguns nestled in populated areas and firing into the air with little warning has raised eyebrows.

Raytheon, the firm that manufactures the Phalanx, declined comment. A U.S. arms industry source said there were no plans to sell Phalanx as it had only recently been deployed in Iraq.

Israeli security sources said they expected the export policy on Phalanx to change within months if its field trials were completed swiftly, while delivery of an upgraded version of Nautilus could take as long as two years.

REUTERS PKS PC1838