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IDF to expand rocket arsenal with unprecedented precision weapons

Avigdor Liberman announced Monday that his ministry had ordered state-of-the-art rockets with unprecedented precision and accuracy worth hundreds of millions of shekels.

By: World Israel News Staff

On Monday, Avigdor Liberman announced that Israel’s Ministry of Defense ordered new precision rockets from Israel Military Industries (IMI).

According to the Ministry of Defense, the new rockets, worth hundreds of millions of shekels, will allow the IDF to more accurately strike targets while decreasing mission cost in comparison to other combat systems, reported the Jerusalem Post.

Liberman, who serves as minister of defense, tweeted that the missiles would help “turn[] the IDF into a stronger, more diverse and smarter army.”

The missile acquisition announced Monday is part of an overall IDF strategy designed to improve the IDF’s precision in armed conflicts and follows the announcement several months ago regarding the army’s formation of a designated Missile Corps.

The precision missiles reportedly have a range of between 30 and 150 kilometers, with significantly improved accuracy capabilities that make them more suitable for the type of urban warfare the IDF could encounter in a future conflict with Hamas in Gaza, thereby reducing the likelihood of collateral damage.

The announcement on Monday follows a senior IDF officer’s revelation in August that the army intends to convert 50 percent of its land-based ammunition into precise weaponry.

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To that end, the new precision missiles will join the IMI’s surface-to-surface GPS-guided Romach rockets, capable of hitting targets with an accuracy range of under 10 meters at a range of 35 kilometers.

In addition to the threat posed by Hamas in the Gaza Strip, the IDF is also on guard against potential attacks by the Hezbollah terror group operating in Lebanon, near Israel’s northern border.

Hezbollah claims to possess an arsenal of over 100,000 rockets, with ranges between 10 and 500 kilometers. According to Israeli officials, the terror group could expand its arsenal to more than 1,000 precision-guided missiles within 10 years’ time.