Barak 1

Barak (Hebrew: ברק‎, lightning) is an Israeli surface-to-air missile (SAM) designed to be used as a ship-borne point-defense missile system against aircraft, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs.

Overview

The Barak SAM system is designed to replace or complement gun-based CIWS platforms, such as the Phalanx CIWS, with a more flexible and longer-range SAM. The missiles are mounted in an eight cell container (which requires little maintenance) and are launched straight up. The Barak SAM system's launcher utilizes a compact vertical launching system, with an 8-cell module weighing 1,700 kg. Fire control is provided by an equally compact C3I system that weighs 1,300 kg, which can either operate independently or in conjunction with other on-board sensors. Its C3I radar system provides 360-degree coverage and the missiles can take down an incoming missile as close as 500 meters away from the ship. Each Barak system (missile container, radar, computers and installation) costs about $24 million. The system is designed to defend against aircraft and anti-ship missiles, including sea-skimming missiles.

Barak

Barak (/ˈbɛəræk/ or /ˈbɛərək/;Hebrew: בָּרָק, Tiberian Hebrew: Bārāq "black", Arabic: البُراق‎ al-Burāq "lightning") was a 12th-century BC ruler and Judge of Ancient Israel. As military commander in the biblical Book of Judges, Barak, with Deborah the prophetess, defeated the Canaanite armies led by Sisera.

Background

The son of Abinoam from Kedesh in Naphtali, Barak was the next judge after Deborah and preceded Gideon. His story is told in the Book of Judges, Chapters 4 and 5. In Hebrew, his name means to kneel or bless.

Biblical story

The story of the Hebrews' defeat of the Canaanites led by Sisera, under the prophetic leadership of Deborah and the military leadership of Barak, is related in prose (Judges Chapter 4) and repeated in poetry (Chapter 5, which is known as the Song of Deborah).

Chapter 4 makes the chief enemy Jabin, king of Hazor (present Tell el-Qedah, about three miles southwest of Hula Basin), though a prominent part is played by his commander-in-chief, Sisera of Harosheth-ha-goiim (possibly Tell el-'Amr, approximately 12 miles (19 km) northwest of Megiddo).

Afghan detainees at Guantanamo Bay

According to the United States Department of Defense, it held more than two hundred Afghan detainees in Guantanamo prior to May 15, 2006. They had been captured and classified as enemy combatants in warfare following the US and allies invasion of Afghanistan to overthrow the Taliban and disrupt terrorist networks. Originally the US held such prisoners in sites in Afghanistan, but needed a facility to detain them where they could be interrogated. It opened the Guantanamo Bay detention camp on January 11, 2002 and transported the enemy combatants there.

The United States Supreme Court's ruled in Rasul v. Bush (2004) that the detainees had the right of habeas corpus to challenge their detention under the US Constitution. That summer, the Department of Defense stopped transferring detained men to Guantanamo. On September 6, 2006 United States President George W. Bush announced the transfer of 14 high value detainees to Guantanamo, including several Afghans. Other Afghans have been transferred to the camp since then.

Barak (given name)

The given name Barak, (meaning blessing) is not the same as Baraq, from the root B-R-Q, is a Hebrew name meaning "lightning". It is a Biblical name, given after the Israelite general Barak (ברק Bārāq).

B-R-Q

The Semitic root B-R-Q has the meaning "to shine"; "lightning". The Hebrew name ברק Bārāq is biblical, given after Barak, a military commander in the Book of Judges.

The Arabic word for "lightning" is Arabic: بُراق‎ burāq. The epithet Barcas of the Punic general Hamilcar is from the same root, as is the name of Al-Buraq, the miraculous steed of Islamic mythology.

The given name is mostly Jewish, and predominantly found in Israel. However, it has occasionally been used by Anglo-Saxon protestants in the early modern period, when there was a fashion for given names from the Hebrew Bible, as in the name of Barak Longmate, an 18th-century English genealogist.

People with the name

Notable people with the name include: