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.

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Key to repelling rockets on the Israeli side is the Iron Dome, a missile defence system that has become a cornerstone of the country’s security since its initial deployment in 2011.

In the months since the Hamas attack and Israel’s retaliatory military ground offensive, the Iron Dome has once again been tested with an attack by Iran on Saturday and Sunday (April 13 and 14).

Around 300 drones, ballistic and cruise missiles were launched by Tehran following a suspected Israeli strike on a Iranian consulate in Syria. Most of these were intercepted by the Iron Dome.

The system is the pivotal lower tier of a triad of systems in Israel’s air defense system.

The “David’s Sling” system covers the middle layer, while the “Arrow” missile system protects Israel from long-range projectiles.

How does the Iron Dome work?

The Iron Dome is a mobile defense system developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Israel Aerospace Industries developed, produced and fielded in 2011 to respond to the security threat posed by the bombings of rockets and projectiles shot into Israel, many of which landed in heavily populated areas.

The Iron Dome functions by detecting, analyzing and intercepting varieties of targets such as mortars, rockets, and artillery. It has all-weather capabilities and is able to function night or day and in all conditions, including fog, rain, dust storms and low clouds. It is able to launch a variety of interceptor missiles.

Israel is protected by 10 Iron Dome batteries, functioning to protect the country’s infrastructure and citizens. Each battery is able to defend up to 60 square miles. They are strategically placed around Israel’s cities in order to intercept projectiles headed towards these populated areas. Implementing artificial intelligence technology, the “Dome” system is able to discriminate whether the incoming threats will land in a populated or in an uninhabited area, ignoring them in the latter case, consequently reducing the cost of operation and keeping unnecessary defensive launches to a minimum. However, if the Dome determines that the rocket is projected to land in an inhabited area, the interceptor is fired towards the rocket.

The Iron Dome functions by detecting, analyzing and intercepting varieties of targets such as mortars, rockets, and artillery. It has allweather capabilities and is able to function night or day and in all conditions, including fog, rain, dust storms and low clouds. It is able to launch a variety of interceptor missiles.

A radar steers the missile until the target is acquired with an infrared sensor. The interceptor must be quickly maneuverable because it must intercept rudimentary rockets that are little more than a pipe with fins welded onto it, which makes them liable to follow unpredictable courses. It can be assumed that the launchers of the rockets know as little as the Israelis as to where the rockets would end up landing.

Israeli authorities have claimed that the military technology boasts a 90 per cent success rate at intercepting enemy rockets.

Each Iron Dome battery has three components. The first is a radar that detects incoming rockets. Then there is the Tamir interceptor missile that is launched to intercept the incoming rocket in the air.

Finally, there is a command and control centre which contains the software that creates and sends the message from the radar to the interceptor missile.

The system is designed to intercept rockets with a range of between 4 km and 70 km.

How effective is the Iron Dome?

Iron Dome has proved to be particularly effective over the years.

Bombings into Israel intensified during the 2006 Second Lebanon War when Hezbollah? fired approximately 4,000 rockets from bases in the south of Lebanon. From Gaza to the South, an estimated 8,000 projectiles were launched between 2000 and 2008, mostly by Hamas??. To counter these threats, the Defense Ministry, in February 2007, decided on the development of the Dome to function as a mobile air defense system for Israel. After its period of development and testing, the system was declared operational and fielded in March 2011.

The Israeli government has said is that the effectiveness of Iron Dome is very high. The Iron Dome only intercepts or destroys rockets which are considered to threaten civilian urban areas. If a rocket is sent from Gaza to an unpopulated area in Israel, Iron Dome will not be activated.

READ MORE: Gaza Conflict and the Role of Iron Dome

Biut the Iron Dome system has not deterred Hamas or other Palestinian militant groups from launching rocket attacks targeting Israeli territory. The Iron Dome may be effective operationally, but strategically it does not really deter the Palestinian organisations.

The IDF (Israel Defense Force) claims an 85% – 90% success rate for the “Iron Dome” in intercepting incoming projectiles. Operational in March 2011, to date the Iron Dome has successfully destroyed approximately 1,500 rockets. The destruction of these incoming rockets has saved Israeli lives offering physical protection and shielding property and other assets. In addition, for the Israelis it serves as a psychological safeguard and comfort for the Israeli people.

Regarding the Dome as an asset for Israel’s National Security Strategy, while standing as an undeniable asset, has had mixed results regarding its four major pillars of Deterrence, Early, Active Defense and Decisive Victory as well as some unintended challenges.

How is the Iron Dome financed?

Keeping the Iron Dome operational comes at a high price. Just one of the interceptor Tamir missiles is estimated to cost around $50,000.

Originally Iron Dome funding was undertaken by Israel, but because of the high cost of the system, the country has had to rely on its long-time ally, the United States.

A report from the US Congressional Research Service states that the US has contributed nearly $3 billion to Iron Dome batteries, interceptors, co-production costs, and general maintenance.

Fears of Escalation

In the early days of the current conflict, the sheer number of rockets that Hamas fired towards Israel, estimated to be between 2,200 and upwards of 3,000 (though Hamas claims to have fired 5,000), seemed to succeed in overwhelming the system. Perhaps the biggest concern with respect to Iron Dome’s capability to continue protecting Israeli territory, is the prospect of a regional escalation in the current conflict.

Hezbollah has a much bigger firepower capability than than Hamas. It has hundreds of thousands of rockets. So Hezbollah could very quickly overwhelm Iron Dome.

Future Use

In addition, while the “Dome” suffices for now, it cannot be expected to continue this way forever. Despite the system’s effectiveness, it is just a matter of time before the militants develop tactics or acquire the technology to overcome it.

As technologies develop and are implemented in operations, counter techniques can shift and new tactics can be developed, which is what the militias are only bound to do. Moreover, with the heavy funding available to the militias from their wealthy allies, acquiring more advanced technologies becomes more probable. This is a significant disadvantage for Israel. In order to preserve their upper hand, constant innovation and adaptation is a necessity. Despite these drawbacks, however, in all the positive aspects that the system offers clearly outweighs the negative. The Iron Dome stands undeniably as a critical and outstanding military asset to Israel’s National Security, even while Israel works to address and mitigate some of the unforeseen challenges related to the system.

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What may have started as a communal clash, soon escalated into a full scale conflict as Hamas and Islamic Jihad launched a fusillade of 2300 rockets and mortars at Israel. As expected, retaliation followed with Israel striking strongly with its Air Force and going primarily for command and control targets (house of head of Hamas, Chief engineer, Cyber warfare head and Commander of Rocket forces)with casualties on both sides. However, the number of fatalities in Israel were considerably less than expected, as the incoming rockets were intercepted by Israel`s Iron Dome Defence system. The Iron Dome was developed by Rafael Advanced Defence Systems in collaboration with Elta systems, which is famous for producing radars and missiles.

A decade since its first deployment in Beersheba, the Iron Dome has known to have intercepted some 4,300 rockets and missiles in several weather conditions with 90 per cent success rate as reported by various military sources and Rafael Advanced Defence Systems. The Iron Dome is an effective, multi mission, mobile, short range air defence system. The system was created to counter short range rockets and 155mm artillery shell threats with ranges up to 70km. The effectiveness of the system lies in reducing the collateral damage by strategically placing it in various locations, this as we know has proved successful against the recent attacks in the past week.

The Iron Dome is capable at detecting, analysing and intercepting threats, which also includes C-RAM, precision guided missiles, UAV`s, Cruise missiles and air breathing threats. The Iron Dome batteries include a radar system, a command system and three to four launchers. Each launcher carries twenty interceptor missiles. Other features of the system include, vertical launch interceptors, several steering fins for high mobility along with electro optics receptors, warhead and proximity fuse and compatibility with various radar and detection systems. I-Dome`s special war heads allow the projectile targets to be detonated in the air. After the target is detected and identified, the path of the rocket is analysed by the Iron dome radar monitors while the system’s BMC calculate the possible point of impact. Once the target is confirmed as the threat, the system commands the interceptors to be launched while detonating the target in a neutral area.

Currently, one unit of Iron Dome is priced at over $50 million while the cost to build one interceptor Tamir missile is $80,000. The rocket costs $1000 only. ELM 2084 MMR is a 3D AESA radar which functions in the S-band frequency. According to the radar’s manufacturer, the ELM 2084 has a target capacity of “up to 1100 targets for air surveillance purposes.” The ELM 2084 is also used as the fire control radar for Israel’s David Sling missile defence system.

The Israel Defence Ministry has used the Iron Dome for the protection of its Northern and Southern borders. It is also worth mentioning, Israel`s doctrine against high trajectory weapons is based on various kinds of defence, from active to passive defences, which involves the interception of rockets and missile by Iron Dome, David`s Sling, the Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 miisiles. Recently, the Iron Dome system was tested in March 2021 in southern Israel and it had successfully performed at intercepting and destroying the existing and incoming threats.

The Iron Dome Defence system, background and its Development

Israel had seen many rocket attacks, from the shelling of Galilee pan handle towns in the 70`s to the second Lebanon war in 2006, following the consistent attacks from the Gaza strip. The constant threats appearing from the Hezbollah and the Hamas was a huge factor for the consideration of having an air defence system such as the Iron dome.

The development of the system was initiated in 2005 by Brig. Gen. Dr Danny Gold (Head of Defence Ministry`s Research and Development Unit), however the project received a favourable boost post the second Lebanon war in 2006 by the Israeli Government. By February 2007, Defence Minister Amir Peretz nominated Iron Dome as Israel’s defence against this short-range rocket threat. In early 2011, the final tests of the system were concluded. On March 28th 2011, the first battery was deployed to Beersheba, the second battery within a week was deployed to Ashkelon. On April 7th, 2011 the Iron Dome shot down its first incoming rocket from the Gaza strip. The first two batteries were initially funded by Israel alone.

In 2010, President Obama, recognizing the threats by Hezbollah and Hamas on the state of Israel, announced that he would provide 205 million dollars in his 2011 budget from the US congress to expedite the development of the Iron Dome. This was the first American investment in the Israeli project. By 2016, US committed $5 billion to its development costs. According to experts, a total of 13 Iron Dome batteries are required to defend the entire territory of Israel. Currently 10 batteries are deployed. Israel plans to increase them to 15 batteries in near future. In August 2019, the US Army decided to procure two Iron Dome batteries to augment its own short-range missile defence capabilities. 

Criticism of the Iron Dome defence system

Apart from Iron Dome, another system similar to it is owned by the United states – the Centurion System, which is based on Phalanx anti-ship missile defence system. The Centurion was used to intercept rockets and mortars at short-range using fast moving 20mm canon. It has served extensively in protecting US forces and assets in the Iraqi “Green Zone” under US command.

On the level of technology, several arguments had also erupted against the Iron dome

1.             The inability of the system to deal with very short-range targets, whose range may be less than 5-7km and also its inability to shoot down mortar shells.

2.             The critics argued, since the threats also included mortar shelling, the defence ministry should have favoured acquisition of already existing systems such as the Centurion and the Sky Guard (was proposed by Northrop Grumman based on the Nautilus tactical laser system. The development of the system is complete but remains non-operational)

3.             There is also a speculation that the Iron Dome system may face difficulty combating the rockets launched at flat trajectories.

4.             The cost of the interceptor missiles is high, use of two interceptor missiles on one target could also raise costs and difficulty for Israel to acquire more interceptor missiles in a prolonged conflict.

5.             Also, the system faces a “saturation point”, its inability to engage beyond a certain number of threats could lead to a defence breach. 

Operational Criticism

According to the Iron Dome developers, the defensive foot print of one battery extends up to 100 square kilometres, however its competitors believe it is far less. This would prove difficult to protect an entire population of a town or city, unless many batteries are deployed.

This would also cause many citizens to be evacuated to bunkers or shelters, while an extensive damage to the areas will be predictable. The purchase of the interceptors is also limited, so the decision to protect a select populations would have to be made. So, this poses the question if such an expensive defence system would be apt for Israel. The debate on whether to rely too much on the Iron Dome defence system vs focusing on simply protecting the strategic facilities is often raised. No doubt the Iron Dome is a tactical and technological success, but does it equate to leak – proof defense?

We must bear in mind, over the years Hezbollah has managed to acquire and improve the ranges of their missile systems. The weapons in their possession are statistically distributed as they are also expensive. Since it would defeat the purpose to attack strategic facilities as the damage would be negligible, the focus would be deviated to using them against waging terror on the civilians. However, the Iron Dome doesn’t give the option of securing the entire population.

 Hence the critics believe, deploying an active defence system for civilian protection would defeat the purpose as the system cannot protect all. Their suggestions have stressed on deploying the systems for protecting the strategic facilities, as it would be futile to prevent some damage no matter how negligible and which may be incurred by the country from the rocket attacks.

Iron Dome, IDF and defending the Offense

IDF security concept has relied consistently on their three pillars of “deterrence, early warning, and decisive battlefield victory (hachra’a in Hebrew)”. It has stringently followed an offensive tactic over defence tactics. By ensuring its strong offensive power it has deterred enemies from attacks and strengthening its advance intelligence networks, it has managed to detect early threats when deterrence fails.

The subject of defensive power made the talks in 1960`s, when Israel expressed its interest in procuring the Hawk surface-to-air missile system from the US. A stiff opposition was met at the highest bureaucratic and military ranks. Some military commanders accused this move as the agenda of the political lobbies to back away from offensive operations which may account to a sure shot victory or a fast affirmative decision. The other argument was to spend on planes which would serve the purpose of both offensive and defensive roles.

Eventually, 5 Hawk missile batteries were acquired and they proved to be cohesive to the existing offensive plan by protecting Israeli air force facilities, while maintaining the IAF deterrence and first strike capabilities.IDF BG (res.) Dr. Meir Finkel in his article, “Iron Dome – the New Maginot Line,” has laid a strong comparison between the defensive systems and the defensive fortifications line built by France in the 1930`s to ward off the Germans. The Maginot line had consumed about 6% of the French budget which took away the much-required funds for its offensive capabilities. Finkle stated the same can be applied in the context of the Iron dome, which would lead to “the creation of false security and the atrophy of the army’s offensive thinking”.

The concept of strong defence capability to strengthen the offense soon crept in post the Hezbollah`s success in maintaining Katyusha rocket attacks in the second Lebanon war in 2006. In 2007, the Meridor Committee on Israel’s National Security Doctrine integrated defence as the fourth pillar in their national security doctrine. This year the Israeli government approved Iron Dome as Israel’s answer against the short-range rockets.

Conclusion

Israel has come to be one of the first amongst the nations to use an anti-Rocket system to protect its civilian population and it certainly isn’t a surprise, given the number of attacks this nation has suffered. It is logical for Israel to invest extensively in the Iron Dome defence systems, but the quandary may arise when it may come to limiting the funds invested in its defensive ability without hurting the IDF’s offensive capabilities.

Looking at the range of the considerations to invest in the Iron Dome defence systems, it appears the decision to acquire the anti-rocket system was a smart one. Israel’s solution to the rockets attacks comes with a controversy but it is still regarded as a technological breakthrough, which Israel should be proud of. Israel’s defense in the latest round of casualties has been impressive and yet Israel has hit back hard with its Air power to hit the Hamas command and control and propaganda elements and imposed prohibitive costs.

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