The US government has inadvertently revealed the details of a top-secret Israeli missile base in published bid requests, leaving military officials in Tel-Aviv in the state of shock.
Israel has turned to the US government with its plans to build a
state-of-the-art facility to host the new ballistic-missile
defense system, the Arrow 3, McClatchy's Washington Bureau
reports.
In accordance with its usual procedure, the US Defense Department
has published the details of the $25 million project on a federal
business opportunities website so that contractors could bid on
it.
Over 1,000 pages of specifications included a thorough
description of the future base from the depth of the underground
complex to building materials to be used in construction.
The information on the facility at Tel Shahar is classified in
Israel, with the local military even refusing to officially
confirm its location between the cities of Jerusalem and Ashdod.
"If an enemy of Israel wanted to launch an attack against a
facility, this would give him an easy how-to guide. This type of
information is closely guarded and its release can jeopardize the
entire facility," an unnamed Israeli military official
commented, refusing to say if the plans for the base will be
altered as a result of the disclosure.
"This is more than worrying, it’s shocking," he added.
According to the bid requests, the Arrow 3 system will include
six interceptor missiles in vertical launch positions to be
placed at the base, with a gantry crane to be erected for further
missiles.
High-grade concrete reinforced with steel mesh grids will be used
to build the structures encasing the interceptor system, which
will have steel blast doors and a system to protect electrical
wiring from the pressure during the launch.
The Arrow 3 is a defense system designed to intercept ballistic
missiles outside the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s expected to become
operational in 2015-16 to tackle possible threats from the
nuclear weapon program developed by neighboring Iran.
"We're thinking mostly about the nuclear threat," Col. Aviram
Hasson, who heads the Arrow 3 project, is cited as saying by
UPI.com. "We want to reach a situation in which Israel has a
ready defense for any threat, present or future."
Earlier, the head of the bidding process at Israel’s Defense
Ministry, Lt. Col. Peleg Zeevi, told Reuters that the project was
given to the Americans as the IDF needed “a player that has the
knowledge, ability and experience” in the field.
Since 1998, the US had built military facilities worth $500
million for the Israeli army, which, according to Zeevi, was
“aware of the security issues that arise in deals with foreign
firms.” But it seems that the scale of the disclosure of a
top-secret facility was too much to handle for the Israeli
officials.