ISRAEL HAS DEVELOPED AN AIR-LAUNCHED BALLISTIC MISSILE
TWO ISRAELI COMPANIES together have tested a new, supersonic air-launched ballistic missile with a conventional warhead that could allow fighters to strike heavily defended targets at long range. But the new Rampage ALBM isn’t without its drawbacks. The weapon is bulky. Its warhead is probably small compared to other missile types. Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) and Israel Military Industry Systems (IMI Systems) announced in June they had tested, from an F-16, the 15ft-long, 1,200lb, GPS-guided Rampage — and had already inked a sale contract with one customer, presumably the Israeli Air Force.
With Rampage, the Israeli Air Force could join a slowly growing number of air arms developing ALBMs for non-nuclear attacks. Russia has introduced its own, much larger ALBM. China reportedly is working on one, too.
But the United States apparently doesn’t see the value in an air-launched ballistic missile. Existing cruise missiles — which already are available to US forces in very large numbers — are perfectly capable of striking, in large salvos, a wide range of distant targets.
IAI said speed, range and cost are the ALBM’s main advantages. Eli Reiter, ma…
