Defence

The Israeli air force has adopted a ready-for-use material for fast patching of bombed runways, replacing asphalt and allowing a base to resume operations within minutes. Tests on the new material, which comes in sheets and is based on glassfibre and other chemicals, included the take-off of fully loaded fighter jets. The continued operational status of Israeli bases became a major concern after the second Lebanon war, when more than 4,000 Hezbollah rockets hit northern Israel. The long-range rocket threat is also the reason for Israeli interest in vertical lift aircraft including the Bell Boeing V-22 tiltrotor and the STOVL version of Lockheed Martin's F-35B Joint Strike Fighter.