Iranian Regime gives Hezbollah precision-guided terrorism

The war between Israel and the Iranian-controlled Hezbollah terrorist network is continuous. It has flared into major conflicts several times since 1982.

The last round was fought for 34 days in 2006. Though Israel has prevailed in these conflicts, it has never truly succeeded in preventing Iran from rebuilding and rearming Hezbollah nor deterring Hezbollah from new rounds of war.

In late August, when an Israeli drone exploded near a Hezbollah office in Lebanon, Lebanese President Michel Aoun said the incident was an act of war. In response, Israel accused Hezbollah of accelerating the conversion of many of its crude missiles into precision-guided munitions (PGMs) and urged the Lebanese government to prevent Hezbollah from doing so and thus converting much of its arsenal to vastly more effective weapons.

Mr. Aoun has no power to do either because Hezbollah is a far greater political force in Lebanon than is his government and because Hezbollah answers only to the ayatollahs.

Hezbollah is believed to possess at least 130,000 rockets and missiles of various types. Many are the crude Katyusha-type rockets that Hezbollah often fires into Israel. It also possesses hundreds of more sophisticated short-range ballistic missiles that can be targeted with considerable accuracy.

Israel relies on its two anti-missile systems, Arrow and David’s Sling, to create its famous “Iron Dome,” protecting it from missile attacks. But, like any such systems, they can be overwhelmed if the enemy launches large numbers of rockets and missiles at once. Iran and Hezbollah have evidently embarked on a change in tactics aimed to do exactly that.

Iran has been building military bases and missile factories in Syria, close to Israel, for at least two years, and as usual building up Hezbollah’s capabilities at the same time. The tactical shift now obviously seeks the means of overwhelming Israeli missile defenses with newly-converted PGMs.

PGMs have been an important element of the American arsenal since the early 1990s. Their precision is enabled by guidance systems that home in on laser designators to hit within inches or rely on guidance from global positioning satellites and inertial navigation. These weapons provide an enormous advantage over “dumb bombs” because one relatively small.