Sdot Micha Airbase

Israeli Air Force missile base and depot

Sdot Micha Airbase (in Hebrew: שדות מיכה, lit. Micha Fields) is an Israeli Air Force (IAF) missile base and depot, whose existence Israel neither confirms nor denies. It is situated in the center of Israel, halfway from Jerusalem to the Mediterranean Sea and extends nearly 13 km from southeast to northwest. The center of the base is located 1.5 km north of moshav Sdot Micha and it has neither a runway nor a visible heliport. Its facilities can now be clearly seen on satellite images. Nuclear warheads are supposed to be stored at the base, which can also be fired by the missiles there.

The secret airbase has been called many names. It is most commonly called by sources as Sdot Micha Airbase due to its proximity to moshav Sdot Micha, and less commonly Tirosh or Zekharia Airbase (including different spelling), due to other nearby moshavs of these names or Kanaf 2 Airbase (lit. Wing 2 Airbase). In July 2017 the IDF temporarily uncovered the name of the airforce's 11th and secret base called Sdot HaElah, but after the press had picked it up, it disappeared again from their website. The moshav Sdot Micha is located in the Valley of Elah, (עמק האלה Emek HaElah in Hebrew), 4 km northwest of where David and Goliath are believed to have fought. The stream Elah (Nahal HaElah) runs south of the moshav but is dry for most of the year. A 2005 official Israeli document regarding the Privatization of the Military Industry of Israel Ltd. later renamed IMI Systems (Resolution no. M'Kh/24 of the Ministerial Committee on Privatization Affairs dated 28.08.2005) states: "IMI's rights in part of the land division known as "Area 209" designated for the "Arrow" battery were sold by IMI to the Ministry of Defense under an agreement dated May 10, 2005." In the official documents published at the time of the sale of IMI Systems to Elbit Systems (Resolution No. M'Kh/2 of the Ministerial Committee on Privatization of 23.12.2013) the base is referred to again as Area 209 (in Hebrew שטח אש 209). The restricted airspace and restricted military area covers an area of 12,550 dunams in the Mateh Yehuda Regional Council, and was allocated to the Ministry of Defense by the Israel Land Authority.

It is believed that the base is a missile launch facility for nuclear tipped Jericho 2 IRBMs and probably Jericho 3 ICBMs. Satellite images show launch areas for mobile missiles very explicitly, which is part of their deterrence. The roads for the mobile missile systems are in between ridges of hills, which has the advantage that the missile bunkers could be dug into the limestone hills around and only need massive doors to protect them from nuclear explosions – direct hits excluded. The missile sites are also hidden there and cannot to be seen from the outside.

In 2012, an Arrow 2 missile battery – the third in Israel alongside Palmachim and Ein Shemer – has been deployed there, near the moshav Tal Shahar. The Arrow system was developed jointly by Israel and the USA in the 1990s and can shoot down incoming nuclear missiles at high altitudes. For target detection and tracking, it uses the Super Green Pine Radar installed on Ein Shemer with a range of 1,000 kilometers. The Arrow system is operated by the Israeli Air Defense Command, a division of the IAF. According to Jane's Defence Weekly, Sdot Micha is also a location for the new Arrow 3 ABM, deployed there in the beginning of 2017. Satellite photos show four rectangular bunkers capable to withstand nuclear explosions and nearby sites of mobile launchers with six Arrow 3 missiles each. The US have accidentally published where the exact locations of the bunkers are. According to press reports, there is also a test stand for rocket engines on the site, where, among other things, the engine for the new Arrow 4 rocket is being tested. In April 2021, the loud sound of an explosion could be heard from there.

Northwest of the base is Tel Nof Airbase (see map), where two squadrons of F 15 jets are stationed. Since such aircraft can carry free falling atomic bombs over long distances, it is assumed that the nuclear weapons for this are stored somewhere on the Tel Nof Airbase or in the northwestern part of Sdot Micha, where many depots and bunkers are located. All Israel's larger missiles are developed and built at the Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) MLM Division missile plant south of Be'er Ya'akov, 20 km northwest to the base.

Before the 1948 Palestine War, the Palestinian Arab village Al Burayj (Bureij) was located on the site of today's base, but its residents fled or were expelled in the course of the fighting. The taking of the village by Israeli soldiers happened at the beginning of Operation Ha Har on the night of 19 to 20 October 1948.

On 6 October 1973 Egypt and Syria surprisingly attacked Israel on Yom Kippur holiday. As they initially pushed the IDF back, nuclear bombs are said to have already been mounted on F 15 jets at Tel Nof Airbase and also on Jericho missiles at Sdot Micha, in order to strike with nuclear weapons if the enemy armies advanced further. If this is true, it didn't happen because Israel was able to push both armies back.

On the morning of 7 October 2023, the day of the Hamas led attack on Israel, a missile fired from the Gaza Strip is said to have hit the base compound, causing a wildfire of 40 hectares, but no military facilities were seriously damaged, as The New York Times claims to have found out based on satellite images. At the same time, it was emphasized that the nuclear warheads presumably stored there in bunkers could never detonate by an accident or external influence.