Israel invaded Gaza in December 2008 in an attempt to stop years of persistent rocket fire at Israeli civilians near the Palestinian territory. Some 1,400 Gazans, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis were killed in the three-week offensive.

Until the recent flareup, cross-border violence remained at a relatively low level.

However, the balance of power has gradually shifted since the war.

On Thursday, Israel first used a new system designed to intercept incoming rockets. The system, Iron Dome, has now successfully shot down eight projectiles aimed at Israeli cities, the military said, though Israeli officials say it cannot provide a complete defense.  [Associated Press]

Iron Dome has been in development for years and if it is in fact intercepting rockets from Gaza this is a pretty significant capability for the Israelis and could explain why the Palestinian militants are now targeting school buses with laser guided missiles from Gaza.

For those interested in reading more about the Iron Dome intercepts the Israeli Ynet News has an article posted.

The new Mobile Centurion is mounted on the U.S. Army’s HEMTT (Heavy Expanded Mobility Tactical Truck). Also known as the M-977, these vehicles have a diesel electric drive, thus there is plenty juice for the radar and electric motors of the Centurion system. The 8×8 HEMTT trucks are built for cross country operations and were able to keep up with armored formations during the 1991 and 2003 wars. Most of the 13,000 army HEMTT’s normally haul ten tons of cargo or 2500 gallons of fuel. A Phalanx system weighs six tons. The HEMTT began to enter service in the late 1980s, and cost about $200,000 each (depending on special equipment and configuration.) Starting four years ago, the HEMTT fleet began a refurbishment program (at about half their original cost) to give the trucks another ten years of life. This included development of a version that used the diesel-electric drive.  [Strategy Page]

For those not familiar with the C-RAM program it is a system that is able to protect US military facilities in Iraq from indirect fire attacks by using the Mobile Centurion system pictured above to shoot down the incoming rounds.  Here is a slide that provides a good time line of the system’s history:

Currently the system is based on a flat bed which effects the systems mobility.  By placing the system on a HEMTT this greatly increases the systems mobility and keeps all the needed parts of the C-RAM on one vehicle as well.

For those that don’t know, here is what one of the M-977 HEMTT trucks looks like:

There are multiple forms of HEMTT trucks available with the most common version pictured above.  I would assume the version of the HEMTT that would make the most sense for the C-RAM program would be the PLS (Palletized Load System) version where the pallet on the back of the truck through hydraulics can be placed on the ground:

By placing the C-RAM on this version of the HEMTT it would allow the system to not only be highly mobile but also quickly emplaced because no downloading is required.  Everything would be on the pallet.