Israeli test missile path goes above US ships in Mediterranean
Israel-USA, Military, 5/3/2000

The Pentagon reported that an Israeli missile was fired where the path of the missile when over US military ships.

U.S. Rear Admiral Craig R. Quigley said in a briefing yesterday that a Jericho short-range ballistic missile shot from Israel out into the Eastern Mediterranean on April 6th went flying over US Navy ships without previous notice from Israel saying that there "was no notification made in the sense of a notice of mariners or something of that sort that we've been able to discern, at least. And the parts of the Jericho as it terminated its flight came down within 25-40 miles of the cruiser Anzio, U.S. Navy cruiser Anzio that was in that vicinity"

He added that "I would be quick to point out that the Israelis broke no law in doing this. They are certainly entitled to practice firing Jerichos or another system. But it is a more common practice, I think, to file that notice to mariners to ensure safety and knowledge that there's going to be an inherently dangerous event over a certain piece of the ocean and that other nations and navies and commercial shipping and whatnot can be advised and to stand clear of the area."

He said the Jericho missile is " termed a short-range ballistic missile. It's been in the Israeli inventory for some 30 years

Admiral Quigley pointed out that the US ships saw the missile coming saying "the Anzio is an Aegis cruiser, has the Aegis combat system on board. And it was -- the missile was detected almost immediately after launch, which is one of the capabilities of that system. Another capability of the Aegis combat system is to predict trajectory given what you've seen so far. And it was pretty clear from the predicted trajectory that this was not going to hit Anzio. And so it was tracked."

He added "it caused a bit of a stir on the bridge of that ship. I mean, even though your combat system will tell you that it was not aimed directly at you, this is an event you had no warning of in advance, and it certainly gets your undivided attention until you can figure out exactly what you're looking at and what the circumstances a"

The admiral added "We would hope that there would be some sort of a notification and a publication of such an event in the future so that shipping would be well advised to stay clear of that area."

He added "many nations around the world launching missiles both over land and over water. It's incumbent upon the nation to do the best they can to try to make sure that the intended flight path of the weapon is clear of any obstructions and is safe. And that's something that's just a common procedure followed by all nations."

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