TUESDAY, AUGUST 5, 2003
Israel developing military satellites: Report
AP
JERUSALEM: Israel is developing three new satellites for military intelligence gathering, the Haaretz newspaper reported Sunday, quoting an interview with the head of the Israeli space programme.
Israel relies heavily on military satellites to monitor activities in Arab countries. Its Ofek-5 satellite, launched in 2002, overflies Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Another Israeli newspaper reported that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon took an Ofek-5 photo of an Iranian nuclear reactor site with him to Washington last week to show it to US President George W Bush.
Haim Eshed, head of the space programme in the Defence Ministry, told the Haaretz daily that the new satellites would put Israel behind only the US in satellite photograph resolution and picture quality.
He said the three new satellites are to be named Ofek-6, Ofek-7 and Techstar, a radar satellite. Eshed said the Ofek-7 and Techstar would represent a technological leap of a full generation, and all three satellites are to be ready by 2008.
Eshed said that later this year a communications satellite called Amos 2 will be launched, while a military communications satellite twice the size of the Amos 2 is in the works.
According to Haaretz, Eshed said that the war in Iraq spawned an "understanding that there is no substitute for space and that it is one of the important elements in conduct of the war".
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