Tel Aviv: The Hezbollah attack on the Israeli Air Force’s (IAF) main radar base on Mount Meron in northern Israel has put the focus of how to protect critical sites against long range anti-tank missiles.

The Saturday, January 6 attack by the Hezbollah in Lebanon, on the IAF’s main radar base that controls most of the aerial traffic in Israel, proved that the problem has to be addressed as soon as possible. The radar base on Mount Meron in Northern Israel was attacked by the longer range version of the Kornet anti-tank rocket.

The Kornet-EM anti-tank Rocket has a range of up to 10 km. The rocket rides on a jam resistant laser beam .

While the Israeli defence forces (IDF) tanks and armoured vehicles are protected by active protection systems against rockets and missiles, infantry soldiers and civilians have become targets for these missiles operated by the Hezbollah in Lebanon and the Hamas in Gaza.

The Russian made Kornet anti-tank missile, is one of the many weapon systems operated by the two Iranian proxies. Hezbollah has launched many of these missiles against Israel since the war began, injuring and killing IDF soldiers in the process.

The Israeli Merkava tanks and the IDF’s Namer and Eitan armoured vehicles are protected by active protection systems, the Trophy made by Rafael and the Elbit’s Iron Fist, the soldiers and civilians near the borders are not.

“This has become a major problem and we try to hit the launchers in many ways including by armed UAVs,” an Israeli source said.

The attack on the main radar base on the Meron Mountain, brought the Israel experts to begin the effort to develop soft or hard kill systems that will be capable to protect such military sites like the Radar station from long range anti-tank rockets.