WASHINGTON, Sept. 10 (UPI) -- Besieged on three sides by 50,000 missiles, Israel is gambling on two ambitious, pioneering ballistic missile defense systems to ensure its survival.

"We have today our country covered from both sides by something that may be nearing altogether 50,000 rockets and missiles," Israeli Ambassador to the United States Sallai Meridor told editors and reporters at The Washington Times Tuesday.

Both systems are the technological gambles that, if they work, will give the United States as well as Israel unprecedented extended capabilities in ballistic missile defense. But both of them also represent ambitious engineering leaps into the dark. And they are both being pushed hard by Israel's ambitious and immensely experienced defense minister, former chief of staff and former prime minister, Ehud Barak.

A month ago, in a move widely reported in Israel but largely ignored outside it, the Israeli air force publicly displayed the two systems: the already controversial Iron Dome very-short-range interceptors for missiles fired from a range of approximately 3 to 24 miles, and the David's Sling system to intercept.

The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretz then reported that Iron Dome was scheduled to go online during the first six months of 2010. The newspaper reported that the Israel Defense Forces already had tested the system several times and had claimed those tests successful. Iron Dome was created and is being produced by Rafael, an Israeli defense corporation, the newspaper said.