Northrop Grumman in $49.5 million contract to defend U.S. Air Force planes • Part of contract for LAIRCM aircraft defense systems worth up to $3.2 billion

Published 19 July 2006

Iran and Syria have supplied Hezbollah with nearly 12,000 missiles and rockets; how many shoulder-mounted anti-aircraft missiles have these two countries given to Hezbollah – and other terrorist organizations? The U.S. Air Force is not taking any chances, buying defensive measures for its Big Birds; some of these defensive measures may be modified and deployed on civilian aircraft

The problem of missiles in the hands of terrorist organizations is now on display in the war between Israel and Hezbollah. Since 1996, Iran (mostly) and Syria have supplied the terrorist organization with somewhere between 11,000 and 12,000 missiles and rockets of various ranges and capabilities. The organization has already fired about 1,000 of its rockets into Israeli cities and towns, and the Israeli Air Force estimates that since the war began a week ago, it has destroyed about 30 to 40 percent of Hezbollah’s arsenal by bombing storage facilities and bunkers — but also many residential homes and high-rises which Hezbollah uses to conceal its weaponry in the hope that Israel would abstain from bombing them (it has not worked: Israel has adopted a strategy of distributing leaflets calling on civilians to leave these buildings, typically giving them twenty-four hours to do so, then bombing the buildings). One reason why the United States and several of its European allies are not calling for an immediate ceasefire is the calculation that another week or so of methodical, patient attrition would irreparably weaken Hezbollah’s military capabilities, thus creating the conditions for the Lebanese government to exercise sovereign power over Lebanon. We know that Hezbollah and its Iranian and Syrian supporters are becoming increasingly desperate: Syria has began to rush additional rockets and other military supplies to replenish the dwindling stocks of its beleaguered ally, but to no avail: Israel has destroyed most of the roads and bridges connecting Syria and Lebanon, and has been methodically destroying any truck or van trying to make its way from Syria into Lebanon.

How many man-portable anti-aircraft missiles (MANPADS), or shoulder-mounted missiles, have Iran and Syria given to Hezbollah