March 20, 2012:
Israel has upgraded its nationwide computerized military management and tracking system (Castle Lake) to include information on rockets and missiles landing inside Israel. This information is already being collected by a radar and data collection network. Now, military commanders will have this information instantly via Castle Lake. This is important because any future war is expected to include firing some 40,000 rockets and missiles, mainly from southern Lebanon (Hezbollah) and Gaza (Hamas) at Israeli targets. Most of the 200,000 rockets aimed at Israel are in southern Lebanon, and several thousand of them can hit anywhere in Israel.
To deal with the rocket threat, the best defense is a quick offense. Israeli troops will quickly advance into Lebanon and Gaza, and commanders can consult Castle Lake to see if missiles from the area they are in have stopped landing in Israel.
Castle Lake contains an enormous amount of information, including the kind of unit location data first used in combat in 2003, by the American Blue Force Tracker system. Castle Lake users can select how much data to display and in what format. The rocket/missile impact data is just the latest addition to the system.