U.S. General James Abramson, head of the Strategic Defense Initiative — SDI (Star Wars) program, said here Wednesday that Israeli scientists had already made useful proposals for possible Israeli contributions to Star Wars research.
Abramson is in Israel to attend the annual Israel conference on aviation and aeronautics opening in Tel Aviv Wednesday and continuing at the Haifa Technion Thursday.
He said that Israeli research work in this field would benefit not only the American program but would also let Israel enjoy a variety of spin-offs to meet its own needs in countering short and intermediate-range missiles such as the SS-21,22,23 and Scud missiles, which threaten this country.
“We want Israeli ideas for an architecture primarily against the shorter-range threats, and this is one of the ideas we are already discussing, ” he told a press conference here. Abramson said that one Israeli proposal already made was “absolutely unique,” connected to what is known as an “electro-magnetic rail gun firing system.”
“You also have some advanced work in electronics, in electronic counter-measures, you have some people here who have ideas about advances in free electron lasers — there is a large series about specific kinds of things… a whole range of your technical community (the Israel aircraft industries, the Rafael weapons production industries, the Technion and the nuclear research facilities) have already presented us with some good ideas.”
Abramson said the SDI had already forced the Soviet Union to come up with some proposals for arms reductions.
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