February5, 2007: Israel has selected the Rafael Iron Cap anti-missile system to protect the country from short range rockets fired by Hizbollah and Palestinian terrorists. The Israeli firm that developed Iron Cap, says it will be ready for action in three years. Iron Cap uses a lot of the current radar technology. Israel already has a radar system that warns people in southern towns when a Palestinian Kassam rocket is headed their way. Iron Cap will intercept incoming rockets with 200 pound, high-speed missiles. Twenty of these missiles will be carried on each truck mounted launcher. The entire Iron Cap system will consist of fifty truck launchers, 2,000 missiles, radars to cover the northern and southern borders, as well as command and control equipment. Iron Cap will not intercept all rockets. For example, only about twenty percent of the 4,000 Hizbollah rockets fired last Summer, landed near an inhabited area. Even fewer of the 2,500 rockets Palestinians have fired in the last six years have done so either. So Iron Cap will only intercept rockets that appear headed for people. The initial system will cost about $600 million.