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“Flying gas tubes,” this is how the people of London referred to the German “J-2” missiles that began falling on their city in September 1944, when the Nazis succeeded in occupying the Netherlands and installing a missile launcher in the city of The Hague directed at Britain - the most important Allied countries In World War II - the Nazi missile program was the first of its kind in the world, while the Allied weapons were airborne only by dropping bombs.
V-2 missiles, unlike bombs, fell without warning or noise due to their supersonic speed, so some officials have tried to attribute the destruction they initially caused to explosions in pipelines or gas stations located on the ground in England, but evidence of these The missiles in the air among the public, and their location in places without pipelines or gas stations, gave rise to the somewhat cynical reference to government assertions that "Hitler could not reach London".
Hitler actually arrived via those "flying tubes" completely alien to European and world technology of the time.
German V-2 missiles reconstructed from a World War II missile donated by the US Army
The V-2 missile was part of Germany's Wunderwaffe program and had a "motor" inside to be able to continue upwards more than eighty kilometers above the ground, as well as a target guidance system with a range of more than 150 kilometer.
It was not surprising that the race between the Americans and the Russians ignited immediately after the end of the World War to obtain this “wonderful” missile technology. The Russians succeeded in obtaining the remnants of the Nazi missile factories when they occupied Germany, and the Americans, in turn, succeeded in attracting most of the German scientists who worked on the Nazi missile program. Little by little, the fingerprints of the V-2 missile began to appear on the United States and Russia, including missiles intended for space research and landing on the moon, but the launch of the missile race between the two poles of the Cold War soon opened the door to another race: the arms race to launch defense systems against those The missiles, so that each of them could protect their skies from what happened to the British capital in the World War.
The legacy of the German missile program continues to dictate to us today the military leadership of the Americans and the Russians in general, and in the field of missile and air defense systems in particular. The missile defense system consists, to this day, of radar stations in addition to signals from satellites that can detect any missiles, aircraft or hostile objects Then platforms for launching missiles entrusted with intercepting those objects before they reach their targets.
Over the course of thirty years between 1972 and 2002, the Soviet Union and the United States adhered to the Anti-Ballistic Missile Agreement, according to which the two parties committed to having only two missile defense systems, and that each system should not contain more than a hundred missiles, but the growing dangers of Iran and North Korea, as well as the dangers of using groups Armed with objects that can penetrate the US airspace, President George Bush Jr. to withdraw from the agreement in 2002, and then effectively terminate it, to return to the world the race of missile defense systems.
Today, the United States has the GBMD Ground Defense Program to intercept long-range ballistic missiles that may be launched from North Korea, Iran, or Russia as well, and it is a system designed to protect the United States only. As for its international alliances and systems that are allowed to be exported abroad, the United States owns the Aegis naval missile defense system, and enjoys its naval cover alongside several of its allies in Asia and Europe, most notably Japan, which participates in research to develop the Aegis system itself, and the NATO countries. . The Aegis system is characterized by a group of missile launchers and radar devices that are installed on ships and war destroyers. The system mainly targets "tactical" missiles, that is, short and medium-range. Today, the United States has 33 ships equipped with the Aegis system, 16 in the Pacific Ocean, and 17 in the Atlantic Ocean.
Returning to ground defense, the US military industries are famous for the Patriot PAC-3 system, which has been widely used among NATO countries, and is currently found in Germany, Spain, Greece and Romania, and in Israel, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Saudi Arabia, where it succeeded in stopping Saddam Hussein's missiles during the war The Gulf, and in Qatar, Kuwait and the UAE as well, a system dedicated to intercepting short and medium-range missiles, and NATO has recently installed a Patriot battery in Turkey to secure its atmosphere against any attacks from Syrian territory. Today, the United States has about 1,100 Patriot missile launchers, and it has produced Previously 1280.
Finally, we get to the newest and most efficient American system, the THAAD defense system, which is designed to intercept short and medium missiles at high altitudes of up to two hundred kilometers outside the Earth's atmosphere, and a number of sources have indicated that South Korea - most likely - is the first to obtain it outside the United States. As a result of the increasing dangers of North Korea's missile program, China has been angered by the capabilities of the THAAD radar system to spy on its vicinity, which includes northern China.
Photo of the THAAD missile defense system during a successful test operation عملية
Moving to Russia, Moscow's arsenal has the S-400 system, which is the equivalent of the American THAAD system, and Russia has placed its S-400 system in separate areas of its western states, especially the Kaliningrad province located between Poland and the Baltic states, and another system in the Crimea After acquiring it, and then allowing it to control the atmosphere of the Black Sea almost completely, it also placed one in the Syrian city of Latakia in December 2015.
Despite the announcement of several deals to sell the S-400 system, in addition to the declared desires of many countries to possess it, Russia has not yet delivered it to any country except China, which is the first country - outside the borders of Russian control - to test the defense system, in 2018, in addition to the deal The recent events with Turkey, a major member of NATO, and the announced deals include a deal with India that was supposed to receive the system by 2020, but was postponed due to American objections.
Also in the Russian arsenal is the S-300V-4 system, which is equivalent to the American Patriot system, and is more efficient in intercepting missiles at low altitudes of up to 60 kilometers, and with a range of up to four kilometers, and with that version of the S-300 and S-400, the atmosphere Protected by these two systems, they become almost impervious to most types of missiles and aircraft, with the exception of the two most recent American fighter planes, F-22 and F-35, in addition to the B-2 bomber, but the presence of these defense systems in a dense manner can work to impede the work of these three stealth aircraft.
Therefore, the skies of the Americans, the Russians and their allies are fortified by these impregnable systems, which are on the throne of missile defense in the world until this moment - and perhaps for a long time - but the military industries are in full swing in three other countries in Asia to catch up: China, India and "Israel".
We do not know precisely how China obtained a copy of the American Patriot defense battery, but it is certain that it has one today that it obtained either through the "Israelis", who denied doing so, or the Germans, as other analysts suggested. As a strategic adversary of the United States, China is by no means a market for any American military products, but its success in acquiring a Patriot battery in the 1990s allowed it to combine it with the S-300 technology it obtained from Russia, to come up with the "Hong Chi-" system. 9 her best to date.
The Hongqi-9 system can intercept various types of combat aircraft, helicopters, drones, medium and long-range missiles and guided bombs, but some consider this system to be less efficient than its Russian counterpart even if it contains part of the Patriot system, which is reflected in the China's continued dependence on its Russian S-300 parts, of which it owns three land plots and one marine to protect Chinese shores.
The Hongqi-9 system is the best that China has produced in recent years and is a leap for the Chinese military industries, which prompted several countries to be interested in obtaining it, most notably Turkey at the beginning of the current decade, where it began its consultations with the Chinese company CPMIEC and chose it already in 2013 in exchange for the company producing it Partially with Turkish companies, the deal eventually stalled, while Turkey continues to consider buying the Russian S-400 or the French-Italian Aster system.
CPMIEC (Reuters)
China is developing a domestic missile defense system equivalent to the American THAAD, the "Ho Hongqi-19", and a similar missile was tested in 2015 believed to be the Hongqi-19, although it was not certain, in addition to ongoing research to produce the "Hongqi--19". “26, the equivalent of the SM-3 missile that America uses as part of the naval Aegis system, and the Hong Chi-29 which is the equivalent of the Patriot system, in a clear direction to keep pace with American technology, the main rival of China now, complemented by the Chinese deals with the Russians to get what the Chinese arsenal lacks From Russian industries such as the S-300.
On the other side of Asia, India has two defense systems: the “Prithvi” air defense system (PAD), which is intended to intercept missiles at high altitudes from 50 to 80 kilometers, and the advanced air defense system AAD, which is intended to intercept missiles at low altitudes of up to thirty kilometers at most, but It remains far from competing with China with its domestic industry in this field, and therefore depends in part on what it possesses from the Russian S-300 system. To be able to keep pace with the giants in the field of missile and air defense.
India launched a strong military partnership with Israel during the 1990s, and the two parties announced at that time the start of work on an air defense system to be manufactured inside India with Israeli assistance, the "Barak 8" system, in addition to India's expressed interest in owning a copy of the Israeli Iron Dome and Arrow systems. In recent years, to counter what it considers a high-level military-strategic coordination between China and Pakistan, where the latter has a significant missile program, in addition to what Iran also has in the Indian neighborhood.
Despite the rapprochement between it and the United States during the past two decades, the Indian military industries remain mainly dependent on its close partnership with the Russians since the Cold War, as India is the largest buyer of Russian weapons in the world today, and then the Indians are waiting to get the Russian S-400 system when it begins Implementation of its announced sales deals during the past few years, although their interest in what the Israeli military industries will offer them is greater now due to Israel’s specialization in facing dangers similar to what the Indians face.
There is no exaggeration in saying that "Israel" is one of the most important countries on the map of missile defense with its various defense programs, which is imposed by the nature of the occupying entity in a geographical and demographic environment that Tel Aviv considers an enemy or a competitor to it, as well as the various conflicts in which "Israel" is constantly engaged.
Israel currently owns the famous Iron Dome system, produced by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, which is designed to confront missiles with a range of 4 to 70 kilometers. It became famous during the recent wars with Hamas and its interception, according to the Israelis, of a number of missiles coming from the Gaza Strip, prompting Several countries have requested their purchase, including Azerbaijan, which, in its conflict with Armenia, faces the latter's enjoyment of the latest Russian missiles.
Israel also has an advanced iron beam system that uses lasers to target missiles with a range of less than seven kilometers, and targets the missile by directing laser beams at it to heat it up and then destroy it, in addition to the David’s Sling system produced by Rafael in cooperation with the American company Raytheon It has targets between 70 and 300 kilometers, and is expected to replace the Patriot system that is currently in Israel when its production and comprehensive testing is completed.
It also owns the Arrow defense system, from which Arrow-1 and Arrow-2 were produced during the 1990s and were activated in 2000 against long-range missiles, and most importantly, Arrow-3 system, which was recently produced by the Israeli Aerospace Industries Company in partnership with the American Boeing Company in 2008, and can intercept Missiles outside the atmosphere, a technology needed by "Israel" because of its belief that it could be targeted by Iran with a missile carrying a nuclear warhead, and then the need to get rid of it as far from the air as possible.
Israel is more keen than others to face different levels of risks that prompted it to own these various systems. It is particularly interested in what Iran has on the one hand, which has one of the most powerful missile programs in the world, with a range of two thousand kilometers covering all the Gulf countries, southern Russia and eastern Russia. Europe, Turkey, Israel, northern Egypt and most of Central Asia, in addition to several countries that enjoy or have enjoyed close relations with Russia, such as the Assad regime in Syria currently, the Iraqi Saddam regimes and the former Abdel Nasser of Egypt, which prompted it and the United States together to develop their defense systems for decades, and is still Motivation for the continuation of the partnership between them in keeping pace with the Russian missile technology, even if "Israel" is not an enemy of the Russians.
These Big Five are thus shaping the contours of the missile defense race, and while the Americans and the Russians continue to lead, the Russians continue to adhere to a more open policy of providing non-Western powers with Russian technology, as they do with China, India and Iran, but on the other hand, American supremacy remains superior. They have many military aspects.