Israel confirmed the use of its David’s Sling air-defense system to intercept a Hamas rocket on 7 October, marking the first time since it declared war on Hamas that the country has turned to aerial protection beyond the Iron Dome.
Hamas launched at least one Ayyash 250 rocket — a two-year-old weapon believed to be the longest-range rocket that the militant group has with an operational range of 155 miles — at Israel from the Gaza Strip.
Unlike, the mobile Iron Dome, David’s Sling is stationary and can protect the entirety of Israel from its permanent location. The IAF received the defense system from the Defense Ministry in July 2017.
David’s Sling’s advanced, multi-mission interceptor, also known as the Stunne or the SkyCeptor, a joint endeavor of Rafael & Raytheon, two world leaders in advanced weapons system development, offer interceptor as lethal, flexible and affordable hit to-kill to defeat mass raids of threats.
David’s Sling system is modular, scalable, and flexible to tailor-fit the area and topology to be defended.
The David’s Sling interceptor (Stunner/ SkyCeptor ) delivers superior kinematics, maneuverability and lethality by combining novel innovative steering control, multi-pulse propulsion and a next-generation seeker into a lightweight airframe.
Benefits
It is designed for “plug and play” insertion into fielded air and missile defence systems with open architecture. It has a Next-gen multi-sensor seeker. With large interception envelope, it can effectively intercept threats during saturation attack.
The launcher carries up to 12 stunner interceptors, launched in a near-vertical orientation. It has multi-pulse propulsion and precision hit-to-kill aim point selection in the terminal phase.
Israel’s Air Defence Architecture
David’s Sling is the middle part of Israel’s sophisticated and multi-layer air-defense network. It strengthens the anti-missile defence already provided by the Iron Dome, Arrow 2, and Arrow 3.
Israel’s air defence systems are stationed throughout the country and are prepared to respond 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
David’s Sling is the middle layer of Israel’s sophisticated air-defense network and is complemented by the Iron Dome and the Arrow systems, for smaller and larger threats, respectively. Together, these protect Israel and its nearly 9,000 square miles of territory from artillery, drones, rockets, and missiles of all sorts.
According to Israel’s foreign ministry, many of the initiatives that fall under the country’s Missile Defense Organization (IMDO) operate in close collaboration with the US and receive joint funding. The three aforementioned weapons systems, for example, were developed as a result of cooperation between the two countries.
Iron Dome
First developed in 2011 and widely considered to be one of the most advanced air-defense systems in the world, the Iron Dome is designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery.
It consists of batteries that have multiple launchers, each of which can hold up 20 Tamir interceptors. The batteries — consisting of a radar and a battle management system — are scattered around Israel and can defend nearly 60-square miles. Interceptors are capable of engaging projectiles from 40 miles away.
The Iron Dome is the most well-known of Israel’s air-defense systems and has been put to serious work since fierce fighting broke out between Israel and Hamas over the weekend.
The IDF said that as of 13 October 2023, Hamas had fired over 6,000 rockets at Israel, keeping the Iron Dome busy as it works to defend civilian the country’s centers.
David’s Sling
David’s Sling is the next layer of Israel’s air-defense network, and its deployment on Friday marks one of only a few times that the system has been used since it became operational in 2017. Also known as the Magic Wand, it fires an interceptor called the Stunner (which doesn’t have a warhead) to defeat medium- to long-range rockets and missiles at a range of up to 185 miles.
The David’s Sling system includes a missile firing unit, a fire control radar, a battle management station, and the interceptor.
Arrow
The upper layer of Israel’s air-defense network consists of Arrow systems. According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a Washington-based think tank, Arrow-2 was first deployed in 2000 and was later followed by Arrow-3 in 2017.
Both types of systems use two-stage solid-fueled interceptors to engage targets like short- and medium-range ballistic missiles in the upper atmosphere, and they each include a launcher, radar, and battle management system.
Arrow-3 serves as the top layer of Israel’s defense array. Its interceptor is a world-class missile that, together with the Arrow-2, significantly expands the State of Israel’s defense capabilities. The Arrow-3 system’s capabilities enable longer range, higher altitude (exo-atmospheric), and more precise ballistic missile engagements.
Patriot
Outside of those defense systems, Israel is also one of nearly 20 countries that operates the MIM-104 Patriot missile defense battery, which is a US-made truck-mounted surface-to-air missile system.
The Patriot is a top US air and missile defense system and is capable of engaging ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, aircraft, drones, and loitering munitions. One battery consists of eight launchers that are armed with four interceptor missiles, each of which can eliminate targets at at altitude of nearly 80,000 feet.
MANPADS
The basic air defence system with the IDF are the notorious Stinger man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS). The Stinger, fired from the shoulders, is a battlefield short-range weapon system mainly for low-level and slow-moving threats like helicopters.
The missile had earned its notoriety in Afghanistan, when it was used by the Taliban to fight the Russian occupation. However, the latest variants of the Stinger can also target higher and fast-flying fixed wing aircraft within about 15,000 feet in air, besides cruise missiles and low-flying drones.
SHORADS
Israel also operates the Machbet short-range air defence system (SHORADS). This is a gun-and-missile system on a self-propelled tracked vehicle, based on the M113 armoured personnel carrier. The missiles on the vehicles are Stingers and can be used against incoming cruise missiles and drones. These vehicles usually travel with the mechanised forces to provide battlefield defences.
Spyder
The Spyder family of Short/Extended/ Medium/Long-Range Mobile Air Defence Systems (ADS) is used by Israel against a wide spectrum of threats, such as attack aircraft, helicopters, bombers, cruise missiles, UAVs and stand-off weapons.
Iron Beam
The Iron Beam is a new directed energy air defence system that is still being tested by Israel. This will not replace the Iron Dome, but will complement it.
The 100-kilowatt Iron Beam is designed to neutralise rockets, artillery and mortars (RAM), besides unmanned aerial systems (UAS), counter-unmanned aerial systems (C-UAS) and anti-tank missiles. It can function by itself or be integrated with other, broader defence systems. It uses a fibre laser to generate a laser beam to destroy an airborne target.
Each battery of the Iron Beam will consist of an air defence radar, a command and control (C2) unit, and two High Energy Laser (HEL) systems.
Naval AD System
While a naval air defence system is used usually to defend one’s own assets, given the location and size of Israel, it is also used as an alternative counter-measure for missiles travelling over the sea.
Installed on board an Israeli Navy Sa’ar-class corvette is the C-Dome, the naval version of the Iron Dome.
These corvettes are armed with two C-Dome systems, each having 20 Tamirs besides Barak-8 surface-to-air missiles, which are launched from 32 vertical launch cells.
While Barak-8 is long range, C-Dome is designed to intercept and destroy lower-flying aircraft, anti-ship missiles, as well as short-range rockets and drones.
Israel Air Force
Fighter aircraft and attack helicopters are another less talked-about air defence capability of the Israeli Air Force, along with the surveillance and command-and-control assets operated by it. The Israeli fighter jet fleet of F-15, F-16, and F-35 fighters have the capability to intercept and destroy cruise missiles and drones.
Israel had in 2021 shot down at least two Iranian drones that, it says, were heading toward Israeli territory.
This was the first time that F-35s operated by any nation were confirmed to have destroyed airborne threats, which showed how Israel has expanded the use of these fighters.
