The Israeli Air Force has announced that it has a new countermeasures system that would deceive or disrupt the Russian S-300 surface-to-air missile system. (Israel expects its neighboring countries to acquire this system in the near future.) Israel says it obtained enough parts of the S-300 system from Croatia in 1998 to establish its operating characteristics. Croatia is thought to have had two launchers and 24 missiles plus other elements of the overall system. (Some intelligence sources believe that Israel convinced Croatia to order the S-300 in 1994, perhaps to get access to it.)--Stephen V Cole