Behind the scenes of Israel’s missile test program are divers from the Navy’s Underwater Missions Unit. After the exo-atmospheric Arrow-3 or the two-stage Jericho II long-range missile is launched westward over the Mediterranean from the national launch site at Palmachim Air Base, spent boosters and debris bearing often essential data for developers must be recovered.
Lt. Col. Ido Kaufman, the unit’s commander, explained: “Since we don’t have a lot of unpopulated land, our industry experiments take place over the sea. And when something falls, one of our missions is to make sure it’s not explosive anymore. Then our experts will wrap it and lift it up.”
Uzi Rubin, a former director of the Israel Missile Development Office, added that debris might not be needed for after-action analysis but for security purposes to prevent it from falling into unauthorized hands.
Other missions assigned to the unit include explosive ordnance detection and retrieval; neutralization and recovery of IEDs and mines; submarine rescue; salvage operations; and the planting of sensors to detect enemy frogmen.
{Matzav.com Israel News Bureau}
