Military Shifts Troops on Border to Cope with Spike in Illegal Crossings, Pentagon Says

The military has shifted 160 Army troops already deployed to the southern border region to entry points at San Ysidro, California, and El Paso, Texas, to bolster security following a spike in illegal crossings, the Pentagon announced Friday.

The additional troops at the two ports of entry will be used to put up temporary barriers and provide force protection for Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents, a Pentagon spokesman said in a statement.

The 160 troops are from the 687th Engineer Construction Company and the 519th Military Police Battalion, both based at Fort Polk, Louisiana, according to the statement. There are more than 3,500 active-duty troops deployed to the border region on order of President Donald Trump.

The CBP announced Tuesday that more than 76,000 mostly migrant families had crossed the border illegally in February, an 11-year high.

"The system is well beyond capacity, and remains at the breaking point," Kevin K. McAleenan, the CBP commissioner, said Tuesday in announcing the new figures.

The surge has overwhelmed processing centers and resulted in migrant families jamming into already overcrowded detention facilities, McAleenan said. "This is clearly both a border security and a humanitarian crisis."

The surge occurred despite the Trump administration's controversial decision under an emergency order to divert billions from military construction accounts already approved by Congress to build new sections of the border wall and replace existing sections.

The administration took $3.6 billion in military construction funding in 2019, which had been slated for such projects as schools, hospitals, port expansions and firing ranges, to pay for the wall.

The administration has also announced proposals to divert another $3.7 billion this year from military construction for the wall.

Trump has said the wall is vital to national security, but critics such as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, have called it a "vanity" project to make up for the president's unfulfilled campaign promise to have Mexico pay for the wall along the 1,900-mile border.

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2020/03/06/military-shifts-troops-border-cope-spike-illegal-crossings-pentagon-says.html

US Army scraps $1b. Iron Dome project, after Israel refuses to provide key codes

American military abandons plans to buy two more Israeli missile defense batteries, integrate system into existing air defenses, due to cyber vulnerabilities and other problems

The US Army said it was curbing its plans to adopt the Iron Dome missile defense system due to concerns about its compatibility with existing US technologies, scrapping its plans to buy two more batteries and explore long-term integration of the Israel-developed system.

A central problem was Israel’s refusal to provide the US military with Iron Dome’s source code, hampering the Americans’ ability to integrate the system into their air defenses.

Gen. Mike Murray, head of Army Futures Command, said the service identified a number of problems — including cyber vulnerabilities and operational challenges — during efforts last year to integrate elements of Iron Dome with the US Army’s Integrated Battle Command System.

“It took us longer to acquire those [first] two batteries than we would have liked,” Murray told the House Armed Service tactical air and land forces subcommittee on Thursday. “We believe we cannot integrate them into our air defense system based on some interoperability challenges, some cyber challenges and some other challenges.”

Last year, the Army announced plans to acquire two Iron Dome batteries to provide US forces an interim cruise missile defense capability, as well as explore full adoption of the Israeli-developed system for a program called Indirect Fire Protection Capability Increment 2-Intercept program.

The Army earmarked over $1 billion for the project to pluck select Iron Dome components and integrate them with US military’s Integrated Battle Command System by 2023.

The Israeli Missile Defense Organization and the Army last August inked a deal for two Iron Dome batteries. Soon thereafter, according to sources, Army officials repeatedly requested Iron Dome “source code” — proprietary information detailing how the system works.

Israel supplied engineering information but ultimately declined to provide the source code the Army said it needed to integrate Iron Dome components with US systems.

The Army decision was based on the impasse over Iron Dome’s source code, not shortcomings identified in a physical technical assessment.

“I think everybody kind of knew going in that Iron Dome is on one hand a proven system with a lot of operational experience, but everyone also knew going in that it was tailor made for Israel, and so it is not going to be optimized for the United States,” said Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC. “I see this development as not surprising.”

Still, the US Marine Corps successfully integrated elements of the Iron Dome with the service’s existing radar and command and control system during a live-fire event last summer.

That test event — which linked the AN/TPS-80 Ground/Air Task Oriented Radar (G/ATOR) and Common Aviation Command and Control System with elements of Iron Dome — was part of an effort to identify potential solutions to an urgent request from US commanders for a medium-range intercept capability, according to the Marine Corps.

The US Army said it was now adjusting its Iron Dome plans.

“So what we’ve ended up having was two stand-alone batteries that will be very capable but they cannot be integrated into our air defense system,” Murray told Congress.

https://www.timesofisrael.com/us-army-scraps-1b-iron-dome-project-after-israel-refuses-to-provide-key-codes/

Israel considers placing Americans under coronavirus quarantine

The US is being considered as well as other western nations such as Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The Health Ministry is considering expanding the list of countries whose citizens, if visiting Israel, need to spend 14 days in quarantine to ensure they are not infected with the novel coronavirus, Maariv reported.

The ministry is considering placing visitors from the US under quarantine, Channel 12 reported on Friday night. If taken, the step will have serious ramification on Israel’s economy.

The US is being considered as well as other western nations such as Norway, Belgium, and the Netherlands.

The ministry is waiting to receive news about the coronavirus situation in all these countries before reaching a decision.

The report also stated that due to the increase in the number of patients the ministry will not make decisions alone but in cooperation with the National Security Council.

https://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Israel-considers-placing-Americans-under-coronavirus-quarantine-620058