A propos the IDF assertion that they are sure Hamas killed those kids in the playground with its missiles as it used radar and sensors to confirm this, I asked a specialist in sensors, Fergus Pitt, who is Senior Research Fellow, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, Columbia University. Is this possible? His response, with an excellent point at the end. The point is that sensors can tell WHERE a missile came from but the technology alone does not reveal WHO FIRED IT: Certainly, its theoretically and practically possible for radar and sensors to track a missiles flight. (Strictly speaking radar is a type of sensor, but thats me being pedantic.) Im not an expert in the current state of military technology, but seeing Israel has a fairly effective system for shooting down missiles, it logically follows that theyre able to see their launch and trajectory. Remote satellite or drone based sensing are likely techniques. Missile launches have heat and noise signatures which could be sensed, and their flight path would be sense-able with radar). A fairly important caveat is that even if Israeli technology can and did track a missiles flight from within Palestine, that doesnt necessarily mean that Hamas was pulling the trigger. They would have to know that Hamas fighters were the particular Palestinians at the launch site, not some other faction. So theres extra knowledge that they would need to bring to bear. That could still be possible. For specific details on the technology, Id suggest (janes/, press.ihs/) or Eliot Higgins (https://twitter/Brown_Moses, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eliot_Higgins or brown-moses.blogspot/)
Posted on: Tue, 29 Jul 2014 17:28:54 +0000
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